The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has given Great Dane its new TOUGHGUARD award, which recognizes rear underride guards that are designed to help prevent a range of deadly underride crashes.
The IIHS, which is known for its stringent vehicle safety testing, performed three test modes: full-width, 50-percent overlap and 30-percent overlap. Great Dane’s guard has passed all three tests, the company says.
According to Great Dane, the company took a proactive approach to enhance its underride guard, or rear impact guard, to make it both stronger and safer during rear-impact collisions. The new guard is designed to help stop vehicles from sliding beneath a trailer in a rear-impact crash, and that can help prevent injuries, Great Dane says.
To ensure a higher level of safety for all Great Dane reefers, dry vans and platform trailers, Great Dane says it will include the new rear impact guard as standard equipment on all of its trailer models beginning later this year.
In addition, due to the new rear impact guard’s bolt-on design, Great Dane will offer a retrofit option to upgraded rear impact guards on 2007 and later models. The retrofit can be installed easily at any authorized Great Dane service center, the company adds.
“We are very pleased that our new rear impact guard has passed the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s 30-percent overlap test and received the TOUGHGUARD award, in addition to having previously passed the full-width and 50-percent overlap tests,” says Chris Lee, vice president of Engineering. “More importantly, however, we are confident that our trailers provide an additional level of safety for those on the road.”
Great Dane’s new rear impact guard exceeds current rules in place in the U.S. and Canada as well as proposed new requirements from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that would essentially align U.S. underride regulations with Canadian regulations, the company says.
“There was no requirement or incentive, other than enhancing the safety of our products, for Great Dane to make this update,” Lee says. “It is important for us to promote safety, and we do that by including this new design as a standard on all of our trailer product lines – reefers, dry vans and flatbeds.”
