Underride Crash Maps & Data

Underride Crash Maps & Data

We are launching an Interactive Underride Crash Map in order to show the devastation which underride crashes brings into the lives of families everywhere. This map shows truck crash fatalities, which appear to us from their description in the media to involve underride. They are added to the map according the latitude & longitude of the crash location.

Interactive Underride Crash Map

The outcome of each crash, in terms of injuries and deaths, might have turned out differently if comprehensive and effective underride prevention technology had been installed on the truck. This is only a partial listing of all such crashes (hundreds of which happen each year); more crashes will be added as information is provided to the administrator.

We hope that this map will provide a greater awareness of the individuals and families impacted by the underride problem. We want their stories to be remembered and their lives honored. We know too well how hard it is to live with the fact that these are tragedies which might have been prevented, lives which were abruptly and senselessly ended too soon.

If you have additional information about these crashes, or information about truck crashes which you think might have involved underride, please send it to: underridemap@gmail.com

Hundreds of people die every year when they collide with a large truck and the truck enters in the part of the car where people are sitting. Actually, it might be more than hundreds. Over 4,000 people die on average each year from truck/car crashes. The crash report forms don’t usually have a checkbox for “Underride.” So underride deaths are under-reported and under-counted. In fact, Marianne Karth and I both have found that our daughters deaths are not accurately reported in these charts.

Through the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the Department of Transportation receives reports from each state on truck crash fatalities. To the best of their ability, they analyze the data and record those deaths which they determine could be labeled as due to “Underride.” That includes the following charts:

Truck Underride Fatalities, 1994-2014, pdf

The next chart covers the time period of 1994 to 2015, showing underride deaths when the initial collision was at the front, side, and rear of trailers — first for the country, followed by a similar format for each state. Numbers are shown one year at a time and then totaled:

Passenger Vehicle Underride Fatalities by State, 1994-2015, by NHTSA

 

We also received a graph of underride deaths by State for 2015 from Matt Brumbelow, Senior Research Engineer at the IIHS. Specifically, these are “2015 Passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in 2-vehicle crashes with tractor-trailers.”

Matt Brumbelow explains further, “that 2015 is still the latest year of data that NHTSA has released.  Also, that while not all these crashes will have involved underride, our estimates based on other studies is that underride occurs in 80-90% of tractor-trailer rear and side crashes with serious/fatal injuries.”

U.S. Map of PV Deaths in Truck Crashes 2015 IIHS

2015 Graph PV Deaths in Truck Crashes IIHS

IIHS, Passenger vehicle occupant deaths in 2-vehicle crashes with tractor-trailers, 2005-15

 

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety prepared this graph by state: PV Fatalities in Truck Crashes 2015 per IIHS

The next map of the U.S. shows the number of underride deaths reported by NHTSA in the FARS by state. Find out how your state fares on truck underride deaths from 1994 through 2015:

No one needs to die this way.

 

History of Underride Research & Reports: 1896 to 2017