Rear impact guards (also known as underride guards and ICC bumpers) have been required on most commercial vehicles for nearly 70 years, but they are not included on the list of components to be checked in the required annual vehicle inspection. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Dec. 29 published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to address the matter.
The NPRM would simply add impact guards to Appendix G of Subchapter B of Chapter III of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, “Minimum Periodic Inspection Standards.” Additionally, FMCSA proposes to amend the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) to maintain consistency with rear impact guard labeling requirements and exclusion for certain types of trailers, as included in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s own set of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) since 2004 but never incorporated into the FMCSRs.
The NPRM stems from a request by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance—the umbrella organization of North American roadside inspection agencies—as well as U.S. Government Accountability Office research and interest from Congress.
“As the amendments proposed by this rule are primarily technical changes that clarify existing requirements and improve enforcement consistency, FMCSA believes there will be stakeholder support for this initiative,” the filing states. “Neither the labeling requirements that would result from this proposed rule nor the exclusion of [road construction controlled] horizontal discharge semitrailers from these requirements would result in incremental costs or benefits.”
According to FMCSA's Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), out of approximately 5.8 million regulatory violations identified during inspections in 2017, only approximately 2,400—or about 0.041%—were rear impact guard violations, the filing notes.
Indeed, the CVSA petition was developed following an August 2018 initiative in which roadside inspectors focused on rear impact guards. CVSA subsequently made Operational Policy changes “to NOT cite a violation for a missing certification label” in the US, an interpretation that found the label requirement pertains to the manufacturer, not the end-user.
However, that August 2018 enforcement push got the attention of fleets and trailer repair shops. Strict enforcement of the label requirement and the improper application of the rules on exempt vehicles were the source of complaints at the TMC fall meeting in September; later in the fall, calls started coming into the National Trailer Dealers Association.
“It’s become kind of a contentious issue, apparently,” NTDA President Gwen Brown told Trailer/Body BUILDERS at the time.
As an example, Brown suggested an incident where a trailer built by one OEM was involved in a rear-end accident and towed to a nearby trailer dealership affiliated with a different manufacturer. The repair shop likely would not stock the OEM replacement rear impact guard. And, depending on the interpretation of the label standards, the shop could be exposed to liability by installing a different guard. Sometimes there is also a matter of competition and lack of cooperation among repair facilities representing different trailer manufacturers, she noted.
The NPRM does not address the matter of labeling trailers after a repair.
Comments on the proposed rule may be filed through March 1, 2021. The docket, FMCSA-2019-0211, is available at regulations.gov.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted Grote Industries LLC's application for a limited 5-year exemption to allow motor carriers operating trailers and van body trucks to install rear amber brake-activated pulsating warning lamps. The agency determined that granting the exemption would likely achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety provided by the regulation, the standard by which exemptions are judged. This exemption is effective through Dec. 2, 2025.
The Grote filing, posted May 12, noted that the request was very similar to exemptions that already exist for other classes of commercial motor vehicle operators, including “operators of tanker trailers, school bus operators, tow truck operators, and operators of vehicles transporting oversized loads.”
Photo: Grote Industries
Indeed, the Grote filing came just over a year after tank truck carrier Groendyke Transport Inc. was granted permission to install an amber brake-activated pulsating lamp on its tank trailers in addition to the steady-burning brake lamps required by the FMCSRs. Supporting its case, Groendyke in 2015 began testing an amber brake-activated pulsating lamp on some of its fleet without authorization from FMCSA.
Data gathered by Groendyke between January 2015 and July 2017 showed that trailers equipped with both the pulsating lamp and the steady-burning brake lamps were involved in 33.7% fewer rear-end collisions as compared to vehicles equipped with only the steady-burning brake lamps.
In its approval of the Groendyke 5-year limited exemption, FMCSA called the test results “both persuasive and compelling given the magnitude of the rear-end crash population.”
In the Grote request, the decision noted that both FMCSA and NHTSA have conducted extensive research and development programs to examine alternative rear-signaling systems to reduce the incidence of rear-end crashes. However, while these efforts concluded that improvements could be realized through rear-lighting systems that flash, neither the FMCSRs nor the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) currently permit the use of pulsating, brake-activated lamps on the rear of CMVs—thus an exemption is required.
FMCSA also acknowledged the concerns filed by the Transportation Safety Equipment Institute that the widespread use of amber brake-activated pulsating warning lamps may reduce the overall effectiveness of amber strobe lamps frequently used by emergency and service vehicles. However, the potential benefits were the determining factor.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance filed comments in support of the exemption.
Grote Industries welcomed the decision, noting that the company didn’t stop with just petitioning for the waiver. To bring greater visibility to trailers during the critical moments when the vehicle is braking, engineers at Grote developed a new Auxiliary Strobe and Stop Lamp, an add-on warning light that can be easily wired into a trailer’s existing brake light circuit.
Photo: Grote Industries
The new light was designed to effectively draw the attention of traffic and give following motorists greater warning of braking. To ensure that nearby drivers are aware of the vehicle’s actions, braking initiates a sequence of five amber flashes in four seconds followed by a solid-red burn. This light sequence far exceeds the attention-getting capability of standard solid-burn brake lights while not overwhelming following drivers with long periods of strobing, according to Grote.
“The unique advantages of Grote’s Auxiliary Strobe and Stop Lamp have gotten the attention of fleets throughout the nation,” said Grote’s Director of National Fleet Sales Mark Blackford, who found uniformly strong interest in the new lamp. “Additional functionality for auxiliary lights will cut down on accidents and property damage and will make our roadways safer. With a product like this, at the end of the day, everyone wins.”
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FMCSA proposes to include rear impact guards in annual inspections - Fleet Owner
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