Jason Cannon
A U.S. Circuit Court has reduced the financial penalty levied against Wabash last year in a fatal 2019 motor vehicle accident in which a passenger vehicle struck the back of a nearly stopped 2004 Wabash trailer.
A St. Louis jury last September 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.
A Circuit Court last week ordered the punitive damages award reduced to $108 million with the compensatory damages award remaining at $11.5 million.
“Wabash continues to believe both that the damages remain abnormally high and the verdict is not supported by the facts or the law,” the company said via emailed statement. “The company continues to evaluate all available legal options.”
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.
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.
