Abreu presses BIC on safety of truck without side guard

Is it BIC's position that a truck without a side guard in this specific instance is safe to operate in New York City?

I can't.

speak to that particular incident.

The collisions that happen on the road that end in fatalities, as we talked about earlier in this hearing, are investigated by the police department.

But our view is that any vehicle, as you said, over that particular weight that's a trade waste vehicle should have a side guard because side guards help promote safety.

But if the vehicle cannot support a side guard, then a waiver may be appropriate.

But we want to make sure that all vehicles, whether they have a side guard or whether a waiver is appropriate, are also engaged in other safe practices.

So BIC has requirements that govern convex mirrors.

BIC has requirements that govern clearance in the windshield.

BIC has requirements that drivers do a daily...

Safety inspection of the vehicle before they go out on route every single day and they keep a copy of that report in the cab.

So we have a full wrapper of safety requirements to help get us closer to the Vision Zero goal.

Thank you for that.

Would a truck that has a side guard be safer than the truck involved in this situation?

Again, not appropriate for me to comment on that particular incident, but you could have a vehicle that has a wide open gap underneath it.

And if there's nothing there and if the vehicle can support a side guard, a side guard should be installed.

That's the harm that we're trying to prevent.

But if you have a vehicle where the design of the vehicle

can't support a side guard, and or where the vehicle has equipment, it could be an additional axle or two or three additional axles.

It could be a toolbox.

It could be a fuel tank.

If it's eliminating that gap, if it's closing up that space, that is safer than a vehicle that has a wide open space underneath it.

Right, but is it safer than a truck with just a side guard?

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

But is it safer than a truck with a traditional side guard?

I think if what you're asking is if a truck with a traditional side guard is safer than a truck that has other equipment in that same zone, I couldn't comment on that.

It's so truck-to-truck specific and it's incident-to-incident specific.

We just want to make sure that there's as much coverage there as is possible to promote safety.