Years ago before side under run bars were mandatory I was taking a load north on the M1,I had a loaded 40ft flat trailer .I was approaching the A 5 turnoff in the nearside lane when I noticed in my offside mirror a sports car coming up the middle lane ,when I looked again I was just in time to see him disappear under my trailer just in front of the leading axle,he ended up embedded in the landing legs.Anyway I eased on to the hard shoulder braking gently so not to dislodge him and running over him.By this time all traffic had stopped I jumped out and found that his roof had squashed down to dashboard level however I was able to prise the offside of the roof up and pull him out ,luckily there wasn’t a mark on him,he had thrown himself across the seats.By this time the police had arrived and managed to pull his car out ,he told the police that he fell asleep anyway the copper inspected my trailer and found the only damage to me was a knocked out marker light he also had a good look at my logbook .I phoned the firm and told them I was coming back because I was worried that the legs had been weakened. The thing is if my trailer had been fitted with side under run bars the accident might have been far worse because he would might have bounced off me into following traffic and caused a multiple pile up
In your case, having no run under bars saved him, what if you had not been paying attention and carried on driving? You’d of squashed him flat. Then again, I’ve never had a trailer that didn’t have run under bars, only started in 2014.
I expect they do more good than harm but there will always be exceptions to the rule.
When he was 17 my dad was saved by not wearing a seatbelt as he was thrown out of the car which had been hit by a lorry. This was 45 years ago so not required and it saved his life.
However many more lives are saved by them (including my own when I was 18) so they are required
Brother-in-law’s best mate had that happen to him around 40 years ago, car driver in this instance had his head taken off. Trucker never drove a lorry again, switched to coaches quite a while after.
Vid:
Brother-in-law’s best mate had that happen to him around 40 years ago, car driver in this instance had his head taken off. Trucker never drove a lorry again, switched to coaches quite a while after.
Vid:
Brother-in-law’s best mate had that happen to him around 40 years ago, car driver in this instance had his head taken off. Trucker never drove a lorry again, switched to coaches quite a while after.
Actually when I jumped out the thought crossed my mind that I might find a headless body,i was shaking like a leaf,when I realised he was ok the relief was immense.He could have told the police that I pulled out on him instead of saying that he fell asleep,there were witnesses though.[keep on trucking] 
kcrussell25:
I expect they do more good than harm but there will always be exceptions to the rule.When he was 17 my dad was saved by not wearing a seatbelt as he was thrown out of the car which had been hit by a lorry. This was 45 years ago so not required and it saved his life.
However many more lives are saved by them (including my own when I was 18) so they are required
Quite right.
We hear about exceptions to the rule, (lives saved by not wearing seat belts) because they are just that: exceptional and surprising.
I remember someone commenting that theyd seen many clips on YouTube of people being thrown clear of accidents and walking away. Clips of people who walk away after wearing seatbelts arent uploaded as theyre normal. And clips of people who die are not shown as theyre banned. So a person relying on YouTube would get a biased view of the world.
Having no side bars saved a bloke a few years ago, he bounced off another lorry and the nearside front of his car went under my trailer but didn’t hit the chassis, he managed to regain control because he didn’t get a second blow from my vehicle, there wasn’t a mark on his car when we stopped which surprised me because i would have sworn that the trailer wheels had scuffed his nearside, can only have missed by inches.
Accidents like these are exceptions though, much safer overall for side guards now, though some of them appear so flimsy as you wonder if they’d stop anything bar a push bike.
I am quite sure that seatbelts save lives, but I hate them with a passion, always have, and so never effectively wear one. I always have a clip to keep it slack but enough to be legal.
I believe I drive safer as a result. I don’t believe half the loonies on the road would take such risks if they weren’t strapped in with the sense of security it gives them to drive as they do.
Spardo:
I am quite sure that seatbelts save lives, but I hate them with a passion, always have, and so never effectively wear one. I always have a clip to keep it slack but enough to be legal.I believe I drive safer as a result. I don’t believe half the loonies on the road would take such risks if they weren’t strapped in with the sense of security it gives them to drive as they do.
What is it about seatbelts that you hate?
And a useful safety device is to have a sharp pointy stick mounted on the steering wheel aimed at the driver. That will concentrate the mind.
Of course the effect always wears off after a few days…
Franglais:
Spardo:
I am quite sure that seatbelts save lives, but I hate them with a passion, always have, and so never effectively wear one. I always have a clip to keep it slack but enough to be legal.I believe I drive safer as a result. I don’t believe half the loonies on the road would take such risks if they weren’t strapped in with the sense of security it gives them to drive as they do.
What is it about seatbelts that you hate?
And a useful safety device is to have a sharp pointy stick mounted on the steering wheel aimed at the driver. That will concentrate the mind.
Of course the effect always wears off after a few days…
Too tight, hate the restriction across my chest and shoulder. I believe they are useful and life saving, but for a driver at least, it is only his own life at stake, so therefore should be personal choice.
In my car whwn you click the seat belt in it automaticaly tightenes itself and draw you back into the seat then slacken a bit, now that is annoying …
When I first satrted in this game about 30 odd years ago we were kept busy fitting side guards to all of our then 200 odd trailers as none had them.
I can remember ■■■■ coe blind as a bat welding on a set of guards, then when travelling down the A140 as the welds failed on two of the uprights the guard swung out on the third upright as a hinge and hit a truck coming the other way 
Side under run bars were a good thing . I remember when they came law and they provided a tidy place to stow spare sheets and timbers and a handy ladder for climbing onto the trailer . In the days before them there was always a mess of sheets to shift when loading and only long timbers fitted behind the landing legs , shorter lengths had to be piled under the sheets . Dave
Doubtful he would have bounced off, they aren’t that strong. The noise of hitting it may have brought him to his senses though! They are there simply to cushion the blow as a crumple zone
Mid 80s I was running for Eden Vale with a full load of milk from Frome to Worthing (IIIRC) somewhere along the Sth Coast road I caught up with a posse of cylists at a roundabout, I sat behind them round the roundabout and once clear with enough space pulled out to overtake them.
As I was about half way past one idiot decided to double up but lost his balance in the process so that both him & his oppo fell outwards & under my trailer, fortunately having observed their idiot cyling whilst behind them, I’d been watching them in my mirrors and was able to stop before the tandem axle ran over them. Under run bars would probably have worked in that instance
I probably suffered more from the milk sloshing in the tank than they did - but hopefully they learn’t to take cycling on main roads a bit more seriously.
Some you win, some you lose !!
If my father had worn his seat belt during RAF training in WW2 I wouldn’t be here as he was thrown out of a Whitley Bomber as it crashed in Oxfordshire & was the only survivor
We used to have 40 foot, single axle (on the 'arris end) flat floor box trailers.
One day on the road into Purley from the M25, I noticed a young lad on a skate board on the pavement (on the other side of the road) but didn’t think anything more of it.
Anyway, further up the road it was slow going in stop/start traffic when I was just about to set off I checked my nearside mirror to see this young idiot skateboard UNDER the trailer, it was both our lucky days!
Pennineman:
We used to have 40 foot, single axle (on the 'arris end) flat floor box trailers.One day on the road into Purley from the M25, I noticed a young lad on a skate board on the pavement (on the other side of the road) but didn’t think anything more of it.
Anyway, further up the road it was slow going in stop/start traffic when I was just about to set off I checked my nearside mirror to see this young idiot skateboard UNDER the trailer, it was both our lucky days!
Pennineman:
We used to have 40 foot, single axle (on the 'arris end) flat floor box trailers.One day on the road into Purley from the M25, I noticed a young lad on a skate board on the pavement (on the other side of the road) but didn’t think anything more of it.
Anyway, further up the road it was slow going in stop/start traffic when I was just about to set off I checked my nearside mirror to see this young idiot skateboard UNDER the trailer, it was both our lucky days!
That reminds me of that clip where Frank Spencer skates out of control under an artic,that was pre side under run bars,hilarious. 
About 20 years ago I’d done a night truck from Worcester to Wisbech. On the way back coming up the M6 on the straight bit before Corley services my mate about half a mile behind me shouts out on the CB, “look how fast this bloody idiot is going” so I’m looking in my mirror as he’s rapidly gaining on me in my lane. Just as I was thinking he was leaving it a bit late to pull out he did so but violently, so much so that he lost the back end of his Rover 800 so as he over corrected it he smashed into the side rails and the drive wheels simultaneously. He then pirouetted a couple of times across the motorway and ended up facing the right way in the middle lane. I stopped on the hard shoulder, jumped out and thought oh ■■■■ this guys dead! Amazingly he staggered out of the car towards me apologising profusely [emoji23]
Punctured a tyre, tore off the arch and smashed the under run rail clean off which ended up on the n/s of the trailer somehow.
Police turned up and searched him. Turned out he was wanted for drug crimes and had a lot of cash on him. My mate and I had to go to court to give evidence…twice!!! He didn’t show up either time. [emoji57]
I cannot see the point of those little 3 foot long ones on sliding skelly trailers, OK when the trailer is shortened up, like when on a bay with a 20’ foot box, but stretched with a 40’ or two 20’s and they seem absolutely pointless.
Having no side bars saved a drunk French car driver many years ago when he jumped a set of lights and went under my trailer, he bounced out from under my trailer quicker than he went under it because he slammed into my spare wheel which shot him back out like a bullet, very shaken but alive…
Ossie