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As a consequence of the lack of effective rear underride guards attached to trucks, trailers and semi-trailers, rear underride crashes are responsible for thousands of deaths every year throughout the world. In an attempt to reverse this situation, cooperative work was started between a Brazilian university and local car and truck industries, whose main goals were to design, construct and test reliable underride guards and to present solutions to government authorities. To meet these goals, to date two new retractile underride guards have been designed and three crash tests carried out. Based on the results obtained so far, the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) has elaborated a new Brazilian standard for rear underride guards.

The Impact Project is a cooperative work between UNICAMP, General Motors do Brazil and Mercedes -Benz do Brazil, whose main goals are to design, construct and test reliable underride guards for trucks, trailers and semitrailers, and to present solutions to government authorities. To attain these aims two underride guards were designed and three crash tests carried out. The results were used as reference to elaborate a new Brazilian standard. This paper highlights the underride question from a technical point of view, reviews the activities already carried out by the Impact Project and discusses the new Brazilian standard regulating underride guards.