Originally published at: A Billion-Dollar Fix for a Distraction Problem Disguised as an Underride Problem - FreightWaves
The Stop Underrides Act 2.0 is back. Should trucking companies be forced to spend billions armoring their trailers against crashes that are overwhelmingly caused by the other driver? The bill’s sponsors say at least 300 people die annually in underride crashes. Meanwhile, distracted driving kills more than 3,200 people a year and is a contributing factor in the very side-impact crashes this bill claims to address.
If distraction were a solvable problem we wouldn’t have guard rails and conformable gore point and bridge abutment protection. Just train drivers not to drive head-on into fixed objects or over cliffs! Just train them!
Probably need training and engineered protection controls.
Ever see that Far Side cartoon about the airplane passenger triggering tragedy by accidentally bumping the “wings fall off” button on the armrest? We need to remove those proverbial “wings fall off” buttons everywhere we find them lurking.