Rubio Backs Bill Combating Truck Underride Crashes

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is lending his support to 2020 Presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand’s “Stop Underrides Act,” which aims to cut down on truck underride crashes in the United States.

The bill was introduced this week, and Rubio’s office explained that “an underride crash occurs when a car slides under a large truck, such as a semi-trailer, during an accident.” When this happens, “a car’s safety features are rendered useless because most of the car slides under the trailer and the truck crashes straight through the windows and into the passengers.” In turn, “passengers in the car often suffer severe head and neck injuries, including decapitation.”

So, in order to prevent future fatalities from occurring, Rubio’s office noted that “studies and pilot programs show that a simple barrier attached to the lower area of a truck, called an underride guard, would help prevent a car from sliding underneath a truck in an accident.”

The bipartisan effort “would require underride guards on the sides and front of a truck and would update the outdated standards for underride guards on the back of trucks.”

Gillibrand, who was also joined by Democrats Steve Cohen and Mark DeSaulnier in introducing the legislation, explained that “truck underride guards are one of the best and easiest solutions for protecting passengers and preventing them from being killed when a car collides with a truck.” Gillibrand also added that the bill would “protect passengers and help keep our roads safer.”

Rubio informed that “hundreds of individuals across the nation are lost to underride collisions every year, with Florida, unfortunately, ranking among the top states for reported fatalities.” And, the South Florida Senator expressed that “as a parent with kids of driving age, I look forward to working in a bipartisan fashion to advance efforts to keep our roads safer.”