Underride Safety Protection: Benefit-Cost Assessment of Rear-Impact Guards for the North Dakota Farm Truck Fleet

The North Dakota legislature recently passed a law to exempt the state’s agricultural truck fleet from a requirement for rear-guard equipment as federally mandated large trucks. This analysis presents the public safety benefit-cost assessment of the device in terms of crash injury severity associated with agricultural truck rear-end crashes. It is based on North Dakota truck crash data and other research conducted on this type of crash where the passenger vehicle collides with the rear of the truck. The injury avoidance benefits and commercial vehicle safety grant benefits are estimated to be $11.4 to $20.2 million over the seven-year depreciable truck life. These public safety benefits are substantially higher than the estimated lifetime cost for the rear-guard equipment and maintenance of $8.1 million. In addition to the substantial public safety benefit, noncompliance with the federal mandate may be result in the loss of certain transportation infrastructure funds.

  • Record URL:
  • Corporate Authors:

    Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute

    Rural Transportation Safety and Security Center
    North Dakota State University Department 2880, P.O. Box 6050
    Fargo, ND  United States  58108-6050
  • Authors:
    • Vachal, Kimberly
    • Tumuhairwe, Esther
    • Berwick, Mark
  • Publication Date: 2007-10

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 24p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01766920
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: DP-196
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Mar 15 2021 9:28AM