Abreu questions BIC on truck side guard waivers

I have some questions on enforcement questions.

Some questions on enforcement for BIC.

I'd like to turn to truck side guards.

Side guards are lateral panels that cover the space between a truck's front and rear wheels to protect pedestrians and cyclists from being swept into the truck after a side impact collision.

Side guards are proven to keep vulnerable road users safe, and since 2023, they have been required on all tradeways vehicles in New York City with a gross vehicle weight rating over 10,000 pounds.

On September 18 of this year, a teenager was killed and another was injured after they were hit by a hydro excavation truck while biking in the East Village.

We later learned that the truck that had hit them did not have the required side guards because it had been granted a waiver from BIC.

If side guards are such critical safety issues, as we know them to be, can you help me understand why BIC would waive that requirement for any truck under its jurisdiction?

Thank you, Chair.

I'm happy to take the question.

It was a horrible tragedy, this accident, and my heart goes out to the family of

the young girl.

We don't want any collisions like that to happen on New York City streets.

And BIC, along with our Vision Zero partners, are doing all that we can to bring that idea, Vision Zero, into reality.

As you said, side guards or rails or panels that you affix to a vehicle to help close that gap between the front axle and the rear axle.

And side guards were not

really a thing in the United States, New York is one of the pioneer cities to introduce side guards to various vehicle fleets, including the ones that BIC regulates.

The national standards around, and side guards are just one of several tools to help ensure safety for these large, heavy vehicles.

There are other safety requirements that BIC has, which complement side guards.

Side guards can't prevent collisions.

They can only mitigate the damage when a collision takes place.

In this particular instance, a waiver was granted, and that's because the national standards around side guards recognize that while you want a side guard on a vehicle that does have that gap between the front and the rear axle,

there are some vehicles that cannot support side guards, and there are some vehicles that already have infrastructure on the vehicle such that there is no gap between the front and the rear axle.

In this particular case, the company that was involved in that collision had applied for a side guard waiver with BIC, and it had submitted information.

We review each application individually.

because every vehicle is different.

And we confirmed that vehicle did have incorporated features between the front and the rear axle, so that there was not that same type of gap between the wheels and under the vehicle that we're usually concerned about with side guards.

So that was an appropriate application of the waiver process.

So in this instance, they had a different feature, you're saying, that justified the exemption?

Yeah, this was not a vehicle that had a huge open space between the front and the rear axle and underneath.

This was a vehicle that had devices, a fuel tank, a toolbox that...

Eliminated that space between the wheels.

And according to national best practices and industry standards, it was an appropriate candidate for a waiver of a side guard.

And it was, despite the way that the truck was constructed, was a side guard not compatible?

For this particular vehicle, each vehicle needs to be looked at individually.

For this particular vehicle, a side guard, the vehicle would not support a side guard.

It would not support a sidecar.