resistance, both internally, from department officials who challenged their findings, and externally, from trucking industry lobbyists has defeated the effort to get side guards required by law, a safety device that could save lives by preventing pedestrians and cyclists from getting crushed under large trucks

The rising number of pedestrians and cyclists killed in collisions with trucks, claim the lives of several hundred people every year.

The research team decided to focus on a safety device called a side guard, which is designed to reduce the hazards posed by large commercial trucks.

Made of plastic, aluminum or steel, the guards hang between the truck’s front and rear wheels, preventing pedestrians and cyclists from tumbling beneath the vehicles and getting crushed. The guards are required on trucks in dozens of countries, but they aren’t in wide use in the U.S.

When the researchers drafted their report, they included a key suggestion: The DOT should craft federal regulations requiring side guards.

Over the span of at least six months, DOT officials repeatedly discussed the ongoing research with representatives of the nation’s largest trade group for trucking companies, the American Trucking Associations. And the ATA repeatedly pressured them to alter the report.

After meeting with the ATA in December 2018, the department supervisor overseeing the project had a very direct message for the researchers. “PLEASE delete any mention of a recommendation to develop … any regulation,” he wrote in an email. “An industry standard is acceptable, but no mention of ‘regulation.’”

The industry objections resulted in a remarkable concession from the department: It allowed trucking company lobbyists to review the researchers’ preliminary report and provide comments on it.

By the time of its release in 2020, the report had been dramatically rewritten, stripped of its key conclusions — including the need to federally mandate side guards — and cut down by nearly 70 pages.

The ATA’s ability to secretly shape government research highlights the cozy relationship between the federal officials tasked with keeping our roads safe and the trucking companies they oversee.

Quon Kwan was the DOT supervisor who oversaw the project. In an interview, he told ProPublica and FRONTLINE he regretted his role in watering down the researchers’ report. He said the department’s deference to the trucking industry ultimately contributed to his retirement in 2019.

“The red tape and politics got so bad that I couldn’t do my dedicated mission work,” Kwan said. “

As the report was going through its long and painful gestation, 20-year-old Robyn Hightman, who used they/them pronouns, was cycling 400 miles from Charlottesville, Virginia, to New York City. They’d won the attention of a couple of professional bike teams there and were leaving college to go pro. Hightman got a job as a bicycle messenger to pay bills.

On June 24, 2019, their second day on the job, Hightman was making their first delivery, just a short ride from the Empire State Building. As they pedaled north in the right lane on Sixth Avenue, a parked cab merged into traffic. According to legal filings, Hightman swerved left, but was sandwiched between the taxi and a truck that was in the next lane. Hightman fell beneath the truck and was killed. If there had been a sufficient side guard, she probably would be alive today.

Four years later, Hightman’s father is still pushing for side guard regulations that he believes could save families from suffering as he has. But Jay Hightman said he was surprised to find he wasn’t just fighting the trucking industry, but also the federal government

For example, after the U.K. adopted side guard requirements, researchers observed a significant drop in the percentage of fatalities caused by collisions between cyclists and trucks traveling in the same direction, according to a 2010 study by the British nonprofit Transport Research Laboratory.

Shashi Kuppa, a career official with NHTSA, became heavily involved in rewriting the report. Internal documents show that she removed key language from the final document, arguing that side guards would cost too much and would not save many lives.

Kuppa and other NHTSA officials reviewed the draft report and challenged the researchers’ conclusions. Kuppa and her colleagues believed installing the guards would cost $600 to $4,500 for each vehicle and would save a maximum of 18 lives annually.

She concluded the expense was not worth it, given the low number of lives saved.

Stephen Bingham is disgusted by all of this.

In 2009, Bingham’s daughter, Sylvia Bingham, 22, was cycling to her job at a nonprofit organization in Cleveland that helps women find jobs in the construction and energy fields. It was her first job since graduating college.

But she didn’t make it to the office. She was killed on her commute.

According to court records, Sylvia Bingham was biking toward a four-way intersection. Next to her was a box truck headed the same direction. When the truck driver didn’t signal a turn, she pedaled forward. The driver swung right, striking her. The impact forced her under the vehicle, smashing her skull, ribs, abdomen and pelvis.

https://www.propublica.org/article/dot-rejected-truck-side-guards-trucking-lobbyists-safety