A St. Louis jury last week reached a $462 million verdict against trailer manufacturer Wabash National in a case stemming from a May 2019 fatal crash in which a passenger vehicle hit the rear of a 2004 Wabash trailer being pulled by now-defunct Akron, Ohio-based GDS Express.
Two men, the driver and a passenger, were killed in the collision, which occurred 15 years after the trailer involved was manufactured in compliance with existing regulatory standards, according to Wabash. Evidence Wabash presented in court showed the car was traveling 55 mph at impact – 20 mph faster than the current National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) underride standard, and 25 mph faster than the NHTSA standard at the time of the crash.
Wabash said it would evaluate all available legal options in response to the verdict, and told CCJ Monday in an emailed statement that its rear impact guards “have always met or exceeded regulatory U.S. standards.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in 2018 found Wabash was one of eight North American trailer manufacturers that exceed federal underride guard standards and qualify for the institute’s ToughGuard award. Following an IIHS crash test series in 2011, IIHS called Wabash's two-post guard "the strongest of the three evaluated.”
Simon Law attorneys John G. Simon and Johnny M. Simon, who tried the case locally, said that upon impact, the trailer’s rear impact guard "tore off and allowed [the plaintiffs'] vehicle to go underneath the trailer." The attorneys charged in their petition that at the time of the crash, the "trailer was in a defective condition and unreasonably dangerous when put to a reasonably anticipated use..." and questioned not only the underride design, but also its construction integrity.
“While this was a tragic accident, we respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and firmly believe it is not supported by the facts or the law,” said Wabash’s General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer Kristin Glazner. “No rear impact guard or trailer safety technology has ever existed that would have made a difference here.”
Wabash contended that, despite precedent to the contrary, the jury was prevented from hearing critical evidence in the case, including that the driver’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit at the time of the accident. The fact that neither the driver nor his passenger was wearing a seatbelt was also kept from the jury, even though plaintiffs argued both would have survived a 55-mile-per-hour collision had the vehicle not broken through the trailer's rear impact guard.
"Wabash stands firmly behind the quality and safety of all its products, and this ruling will not prevent the company from continuing to provide its customers with products that contribute to safer roads," the company said in its statement.
Newer underride standards
NHTSA in July 2022 upgraded its safety standards for rear underride protection in crashes of passenger vehicles into trailers and semitrailers by adopting requirements similar to Transport Canada's standard for rear impact guards. With this final rule, the standards require rear impact guards to provide sufficient strength and energy absorption to protect occupants of compact and subcompact passenger cars impacting the rear of trailers at 35 mph. The final rule provides upgraded protection for crashes in which a passenger motor vehicle hits the rear of the trailer or semitrailer such that 50% to 100% of the width of the passenger motor vehicle overlaps the rear of the trailer or semitrailer.
Following its publication, NHTSA received a petition for reconsideration from a coalition of safety groups, including Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates), the Truck Safety Coalition (TSC), Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), and Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), which argued the rulemaking didn’t go far enough. NHTSA said the coalition “disagreed with the data and analysis that the agency used for the final rule and asserted that NHTSA should require reinforced rear guards designed for the 30% overlap crash condition.” The petitioners further claimed the new standards were “inadequate and dangerous.”
In June of this year, NHTSA denied a petition for reconsideration of the new 2022 standards and stood by the data it used in creating the rule, noting that the Trucks in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) database it used is more accurate than NHTSA’s own Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for medium- and heavy-duty trucks involved in fatal crashes.
NHTSA last year published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking exploring possibly requiring side underride guards on trailers. Earlier this year the NHTSA Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP), a group tasked with providing advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Transportation on safety regulations to reduce underride crashes and fatalities related to underride crashes, said it will recommend to Congress that any trailer built in the last quarter century meet IIHS ToughGuard standards.
