Findings; purposes

(a) Findings Congress finds that— (1) underride crashes involving passenger motor vehicles or Vulnerable Road Users, including motorcyclists, striking and traveling underneath a truck or trailer are a significant public health and safety threat; (2) the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection established under section 23011(d)(1) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (49 U.S.C. 30111 note; Public Law 117–58) has reported that, since the formation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over 50 years ago, 25,100 underrides and 31,500 corresponding fatalities from side underride, rear underride, and front underride crashes have occurred and concluded that no substantial progress has been made by DOT to prevent these horrific crash fatalities and injuries; (3) the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended the installation of rear underride guards, side underride guards, and front underride guards on tractor-trailers and rear underride guards and side underride guards on single unit trucks to improve Vulnerable Road User and passenger motor vehicle safety; and (4) this Act is introduced in memory of the thousands of victims of underride crashes, including— (A) Roya Christine Sadigh, AnnaLeah Karth, Mary Lydia Karth, Sylvia Bingham, Roderick Cota, Moonjohn Kim, Corey Moore, Gregg Williams, Guy Champ Crawford, Carl Hall, Michael Higginbotham, Sandra Maddamma, David Mathis, Mary Katherine Mathis, James Mooney, Christopher Weigl, Bill Zink, David Magnan, Jasen Swift, Samuel Sierra, Brittany McHargue, Christopher Samuel Padilla, Riley Hein, Erin Alexander, Jordan Hensley, Edward Hall, Leslie Rosenberg, Sophie Rosenberg, Ally Davis, Robin Hightman, Alex Wolf, Devyn Killion, Dustin Bosch, Ronald Alleman, Ashley Marie (Walker) Ramirez, Minh-Thi Nguyen, Melissa Missy De Leon, Mark Roderick, Karen Bucklew, and Tommy Yaqub; (B) those whose catastrophic injuries dramatically changed their lives, including Julie Magnan, Nancy Meuleners, Joshua Rojas, Maiv Yang, Anita Plantage Bomgaars, Michael B. Hawkins, Roosevelt Smith, and Robert Eshbaugh; and (C) those whose precious lives were cut far too short as a result of preventable underride crashes. (b) Purposes The purposes of this Act are— (1) to reduce the number of preventable deaths and injuries caused by underride crashes; (2) to ensure the efficacy of comprehensive underride protection systems on roads in the United States; and (3) to improve Vulnerable Road User, motor carrier, and passenger motor vehicle safety.