H.R. 7354 — Stop Underrides Act 2.0

This section states congressional findings that underride crashes involving passenger motor vehicles or vulnerable road users (including motorcyclists) and trucks or trailers pose a significant public health and safety threat, citing 25,100 underrides and 31,500 fatalities since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's formation, a lack of substantial progress by the Department of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board recommendations for rear, side, and front underride guards, and a list of victims and survivors. The section specifies the Act's purposes as reducing preventable underride crash deaths and injuries, ensuring the efficacy of comprehensive underride protection systems, and improving safety for vulnerable road users, motor carriers, and passenger motor vehicles.

This section establishes definitions for purposes of the Act, including (1) "commercial motor vehicle," as defined in 49 U.S.C. §31132 (i.e., generally a self-propelled or towed vehicle used in interstate commerce with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight of at least 10,001 pounds, or designed/used to transport more than 8 passengers for compensation or more than 15 passengers including the driver); (2) "comprehensive underride protection system," meaning all applicable front underride guards, rear underride guards, or side underride guards installed on a commercial motor vehicle; (3) "front underride guard," a device installed on or near the front of a commercial motor vehicle that prevents or limits a struck vehicle from sliding under the front of the striking commercial motor vehicle; and (4) "rear underride guard," as defined in 49 C.F.R. §571.223 (i.e., rear impact guard). This section also applies definitions from 49 U.S.C. §30102(a) to the terms "passenger motor vehicle," "semitrailer," "side underride guard," "single unit truck," "trailer," and "vulnerable road user."

This section establishes in 49 U.S.C. §30102(a) definitions for (1) passenger motor vehicle (as defined in 49 U.S.C. §32101); (2) Secretary (i.e., Secretary of Transportation); (3) semitrailer (as defined in 49 C.F.R. §571.3(b) or successor); (4) side underride guard (i.e., a device on the side of a trailer, semitrailer, or single unit truck that limits front-end slide-under by striking vehicles and prevents vulnerable road users from sliding under); (5) single unit truck (i.e., large commercial truck excluding attached trailer); (6) trailer (as defined in 49 C.F.R. §571.3(b) or successor); and (7) Vulnerable Road User (as defined in 23 U.S.C. §148(a)). It also redesignates paragraphs (11), (12), and (13) as paragraphs (12), (17), and (19), respectively, and makes conforming punctuation changes.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to finalize, not later than 18 months after enactment, motor vehicle safety standards requiring side underride guards—devices that prevent smaller vehicles or vulnerable road users (e.g., pedestrians, cyclists) from sliding under the sides of new trailers, semitrailers, and single-unit trucks—on such vehicles. The guards must meet a performance standard preventing intrusion into a passenger motor vehicle's occupant survival space during perpendicular impacts at closing speeds up to 40 miles per hour, impeding vulnerable road users from passing underneath, and incorporating aerodynamic features to improve fuel efficiency; cost-benefit analyses must account for prevented deaths and injuries among passenger occupants and vulnerable road users, plus net fuel savings relative to voluntary adoption of aerodynamic side skirts. The section requires full compliance within two years after finalization, periodic reviews beginning five years thereafter (and every five years after) to assess needed updates, and clarifies that any prior withdrawal of NHTSA's April 2023 advance notice of proposed rulemaking on side underride guards does not affect these requirements. It also makes conforming amendments to the chapter analysis for 49 U.S.C. chapter 301.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to reconvene, not later than 180 days after enactment, the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to advise on rear underride guard standards that prevent passenger vehicles from sliding under trucks and trailers in crashes. The section also amends the IIJA provisions governing the committee as follows: (1) increases authorized membership to 22 (from 20) and revises membership categories to add representatives from families of underride crash victims who were occupants of passenger motor vehicles and vulnerable road users (as defined in 49 U.S.C. §30102(a)); (2) increases meeting frequency to monthly (via conference call or virtual platform) and annually in person at Department of Transportation headquarters until final underride protection regulations are issued under 49 U.S.C. §30130(a), and annually in person thereafter to assess regulation status (from not less frequently than annually); (3) expands exemptions from public disclosure to include deliberative materials; (4) requires annual reports (from biennial); and (5) sets a termination date of September 30, 2031.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to publish a publicly accessible website serving as a repository of underride resources (i.e., materials on rear, side, and front underride guards that prevent smaller vehicles from sliding under trucks or trailers in crashes) for industry, researchers, advocates, and the public, including (1) Department of Transportation research on rear impact guards, (2) such research on side impact guards, (3) such research on front impact guards, (4) a link to the database of the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), (5) information and links on all Department underride rulemakings, (6) stories of underride crash victims, and (7) documentation of past and ongoing underride crash data collection. The section further requires quarterly updates to these resources.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to seek, within one year of enactment, an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) for a study on the prevalence of crashes involving the front of large trucks and their threat to vulnerable road users (i.e., pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists). Within 180 days of completing the study, NASEM must report to Congress with (1) recommendations to prevent crashes where a passenger motor vehicle slides under the front of a large truck and related deaths; (2) analysis of the efficacy of protective devices such as front override guards; and (3) statistics since 2010 on fatal and non-fatal rear and side underride crashes, including vehicle types, road types, and fatalities. This section further requires the Comptroller General of the United States to complete, within one year of enactment, a study on implementation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's final rule entitled "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rear Impact Guards, Rear Impact Protection" (87 Fed. Reg. 42339, July 15, 2022). Within 180 days of completing the study, the Comptroller General must report to the Secretary of Transportation and Congress with an implementation analysis, recommendations (if applicable) for improving the rule, and recommendations to prevent underride crashes at the rear of trailers, semitrailers, and single-unit trucks.

This section directs the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), not later than one year after enactment, to review the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)—NHTSA's national database of fatal motor vehicle crashes—to determine (1) the number of fatalities in crashes reported as underride crashes by state or local law enforcement; (2) the number of fatalities in crashes not reported as underride crashes but that should have been, as determined by reviewing the initial point of impact in fatal large-truck crashes, the Crash Investigation Sampling System, open-source media reports with photo evidence, and other data; and (3) recommendations to improve incident reporting by state and local law enforcement. Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Administrator must develop free, on-demand web-based training for state and local law enforcement on identifying and documenting underride crashes.