Truck: rules not strict enough
" letter signed from Andrea Leva on the “QUATTRORUOTE” magazine, of 14 september 2004 "
On May's number of "Quattroruote" magazine I read the letter of the Road police officer Luca De Felice, that spoke about the lack of security in case of a crash of a heavy vehicle from a car. Unfortunately the problem involves me deeply, because in june 2000 my father lost his life in an accident on the motorway, with the dynamics described from the officer.The explosion of the airbag did not save his life because in the collision the posterior part of the truck's tail lift, although it was equipped of the bar according to the law, it hit him on the head. From then I have collected all the relative documentation on the norms of homologation of the bars of the trucks, discovering that it is not strict enough. In short, it is limited to establish that the bar must be high at least 10 cm., it must not be placed more than 55 cm. from ground and it must not withdraw more than 40 cm. if subordinate to a force calculated at the maximum mass of the vehicle. Such values are easily passed in case of collision, also at a relatively low speed between car and truck, above all if this is of low tonnage. The norm is European and Italy has taken the most recent one, while some community countries are still at the rules of thirty years ago! So what is the use in making safer cars, put under stricted crash tests, if then they find themselves to circular with vehicles so high from the ground and without any meaningful structure of absorption?