America’s Dangerous Trucks
Tues., June 13, 2023
Streaming at 7/6c at pbs.org/frontline & in the PBS Video App
Airing at 10/9c on PBS and on YouTube
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Deadly traffic accidents involving large trucks have surged over the past decade, increasing nearly fifty percent. Nearly 6,000 people were killed in the U.S. in 2021, according to the most recent federal data, while tens of thousands were injured, many severely.

America’s Dangerous Trucks, a joint investigation from FRONTLINE and ProPublica, examines one particularly gruesome kind of truck accident — underride crashes — and why they keep happening. 

“These are crashes where a smaller vehicle gets caught under large trucks like 18-wheelers, often with devastating consequences,” says award-winning correspondent A.C. Thompson (Documenting Hate, American Insurrection, Law & Disorder). “Our new investigation explores what the trucking industry and the government knew about these crashes, when they knew it, and their role in the fight over safety measures that could potentially save thousands of lives.”

Premiering June 13, 2023, on PBS and on streaming platforms, America’s Dangerous Trucks is directed by Gabrielle Schonder (NRA Under Fire). Drawing on more than a year of reporting — including leaked documents and interviews with former government insiders, trucking industry representatives, and families of underride crash victims — the documentary reveals how, for decades, federal regulators proposed new rules to try to prevent underride crashes. Over and over, pushback from trucking industry lobbyists won the day, leaving drivers of smaller vehicles vulnerable.

“You have all of this technology that’s gone into your personal vehicle to keep you safe — you know, airbags, seatbelts, crush zones — and in an underride crash, all of that is completely useless,” says Matt Brumbelow, a senior automotive engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

When it comes to the push for rear and side truck guards that could potentially prevent underride deaths, former staffers of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration speak out about the relationship between the agency and the industries it regulates.

“NHTSA has been trying for decades to do something about underride deaths. And yet, over and over, they haven’t made the progress that we need. Why? Well, I think part of it is because industry just keeps pushing back and undermining their efforts,” says David Friedman, an acting head of NHTSA during the Obama administration.

“It is an extremely captive agency,” says former NHTSA physicist Lou Lombardo. “It really is captive to the auto industry, truck industry.”

The documentary finds that the trucking industry has repeatedly pointed to a lack of data on underride deaths, and the costs associated with new safety measures, in opposing NHTSA’s proposals.

“One fatality or highway injury is one too many,” says Dan Horvath, the vice president of safety policy for the American Trucking Associations. “So if it’s something that we can do as a whole, as an industry to address that and get to … eliminating those deaths or serious injuries, we’re certainly going to do this.”  

Both trucking industry representatives and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say that their top priority is safety, with NHTSA also saying it has taken steps to reduce underride crashes. America’s Dangerous Trucks is a powerful examination of where the fight over underride safety measures stands, and why it matters.

America’s Dangerous Trucks premieres Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 10/9c on PBS stations (check local listings) and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel. It will also be available to stream starting at 7/6c the night of its release at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS Video App. Read related stories at ProPublica.org and pbs.org/frontline.

America’s Dangerous Trucks is distributed internationally by PBS International. Subscribe to FRONTLINE’s newsletter to get updates on events, podcast episodes and more related to the documentary.

Credits
America’s Dangerous Trucks is a FRONTLINE production with Midnight Films LLC in partnership with ProPublica. The director is Gabrielle Schonder. The producers are A.C. Thompson, Gabrielle Schonder and Karim Hajj. The correspondent is A.C. Thompson. The writers are A.C. Thompson and Gabrielle Schonder. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 104 Emmy Awards and 31 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

About ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. With a team of more than 100 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics, focusing on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Its reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels. Since it began publishing in 2008, ProPublica has received six Pulitzer Prizes, five Peabody Awards, five Emmy Awards and twelve George Polk Awards, among others.

FRONTLINE Press Contact:
Anne Husted, FRONTLINE, Manager, Public Relations and Communications | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org  |  617.300.5312

ProPublica Press Contact:
Alexis Stephens, ProPublica, Director of Communications | media@propublica.org | 267.872.3924