Underride Accident Lawyer: When a Car Goes Beneath a Truck Trailer

What is an underride crash?

An underride crash happens when a smaller vehicle runs into a large truck or trailer and wedges beneath it because the trailer bed sits well above a car's hood. The car's crumple zone, airbags and bumper were designed to meet another car's bumper, so they never engage, and the trailer edge enters the passenger compartment at head height.

Rear underride happens when a car strikes the back of a trailer that is stopped, slowing or parked. Side underride happens when a car strikes the side of a trailer that is crossing the road, turning, or backing into a driveway or loading dock. Override is the reverse situation, where a truck rides up over the back of a car it has struck.

What rear underride protection is required

Federal safety rules require a rear impact guard on many trailers and semitrailers. For a trailer with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more that was built on or after January 26, 1998, 49 CFR § 393.86(a) requires a guard meeting federal motor vehicle safety standards, with these limits:

• The bottom of the horizontal bar may be no more than 22 inches above the ground at any point across its width.
• The bar must reach to within 4 inches of each side of the trailer.
• The bar must sit within 12 inches of the rear of the trailer.
• The bar must be at least 100 mm (about 3.94 inches) tall in cross section.

Guards must also be kept in working condition

Older vehicles and certain body types fall under a looser standard in § 393.86(b), with a 30-inch height limit, and some trailers, such as pole trailers and certain low chassis or wheels-back vehicles, are exempt from the newer rule. Whether a particular trailer was covered is a factual question that starts with its build date and VIN.

A guard that met the standard when new can be bent, rusted, cracked at the welds or knocked loose by years of backing into loading docks. The federal annual inspection list includes the rear impact guard, and a missing guard or one not securely attached is a listed defect (49 CFR Part 396, Appendix A, item 15). Each carrier must also systematically inspect, repair and maintain the vehicles it controls (49 CFR § 396.3). If the guard was damaged before the crash, the inspection and repair records may show whether the carrier knew.

Stopped trailers, lighting and warning devices

Many rear underride crashes happen at night, when a driver comes upon a trailer that is stopped in a travel lane or on the shoulder and is hard to see. When a commercial truck stops on the traveled portion of a highway or its shoulder for anything other than a necessary traffic stop, the driver must turn on the hazard flashers immediately and set out warning devices as soon as possible, and in any event within 10 minutes (49 CFR § 392.22). Dirty or missing reflective tape and burned-out lights are also maintenance issues.

Side underride often involves a trailer blocking the road as it turns or backs across lanes, for example at a warehouse entrance off US-1 or a shopping center driveway on West Chester Pike. The question then is whether the driver started the maneuver when it was unsafe or without a spotter where one was needed.

Who can be held responsible

Depending on the facts, responsibility can rest with the truck driver who stopped without warnings or pulled across traffic, the motor carrier that failed to repair a damaged guard, the owner of a leased or pooled trailer, or a repair shop that signed off on a guard that was not fixed. Pennsylvania's comparative negligence rule (42 Pa.C.S. § 7102) means the insurer will often argue that the car's driver should have stopped in time. Lighting, sight lines and the truck's position are the evidence that answers that argument.

Keep the car. The depth of intrusion, the marks on the guard, and whether the guard bent or tore away are physical evidence an engineer can measure. Ask your insurer not to salvage the vehicle until it has been inspected, and have a lawyer send the carrier a demand to preserve the trailer and its records.

Injuries, wrongful death and deadlines

Because the trailer strikes at windshield level, underride crashes often cause head, face and neck injuries, traumatic brain injury and fatal injuries even at moderate speeds. When a family loses someone, Pennsylvania allows both a wrongful death action and a survival action (42 Pa.C.S. §§ 8301, 8302). Injury claims generally must be filed within 2 years (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524), with exceptions, so do not wait.

Warren I. Siegel, Esq., a Pennsylvania attorney since 1992, handles these claims on a 100% contingency fee. There is no attorney fee unless we recover, the firm advances all case costs, and those costs are repaid only from a recovery. Call (267) 412-4601 or send the free case review form.