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America's Dangerous Trucks
FRONTLINE PBS | OfficialJun 13, 2023
Deadly traffic accidents involving large trucks have surged over the past decade. FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate one particularly gruesome kind of truck accident — underride crashes — and why they keep happening.
“These are crashes where a smaller vehicle gets caught under large trucks like 18-wheelers, often with devastating consequences,” says award-winning correspondent A.C. Thompson (“Documenting Hate,” “American Insurrection,” and “Law & Disorder”). “Our new investigation explores what the trucking industry and the government knew about these crashes, when they knew it, and their role in the fight over safety measures that could potentially save thousands of lives.”
Explore additional reporting on "America’s Dangerous Trucks" on our website and ProPublica’s website:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/americas-dangerous-trucks/
https://www.propublica.org/series/americas-dangerous-trucks
#Documentary #Trucks #Accidents #Crashes #Traffic
CHAPTERS:
Prologue - 00:00
A 16-Year-Old Killed in a Truck Underride Crash - 00:34
What Are Underride Crashes — and Why Are They So Devastating? - 4:38
Jayne Mansfield’s 1967 Death Put Underride Crashes in Spotlight - 8:30
Dept. of Transportation’s Lead Agency on Underride Crashes: NHTSA - 9:52
Truck Rear Guards Met 1998 Federal Regulations But Mostly Failed Crash Tests - 12:26
The Truck Industry Lobby and NHTSA - 17:42
Sen. Gillibrand Seeks Stronger Regulations to Prevent Underride Crashes - 27:54
The Truck Industry’s Reaction to Proposed Underride Regulations - 30:49
Accident Reconstructionist Tests a New Kind of Truck Side Guard - 33:10
Why Is There a Lack of Reliable Data on Truck Underride Crashes and Fatalities? - 38:52
Department of Transportation Insider Speaks Out - 45:10
Credits - 51:58
The tragic origin of the Mansfield bar
The Mansfield bar was created after the death of actress Jayne Mansfield, whose tragic end came at the horrifically young age of 34 when the car she and her children were riding in slammed into the rear of a semi truck.
Are Mansfield bars effective? LINK
The invention of the Mansfield bar was hailed as a success after initial crash tests showed that it worked to prevent cars from going underneath a semi’s trailer. However, it was later discovered that while the Mansfield bar did indeed work, its success hinged largely on the angle of impact. When vehicles collided with the semi’s rear while coming straight at the bar, it was successful. However, a change to the trajectory led to a decreased success rate. In fact, when anything less than 30 percent of the vehicle’s front end hit the bar, the success rate dropped dramatically.
Photos of a Ford Escape driven by a drunk driver ran under my rig.
Thanks for posting these up, Mike. 
Thanks for adding this update, Mike. 
