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Rivera Beach Police Officer's Looses Life For $27

In the middle of the night on August 17, 2001, Rivera Beach police officer Donald A. Eberhardt, Jr. signed off duty and headed home to his wife and three small children. Tragically, he would never see his family again.

Shortly after leaving the police station, Officer Eberhardt's car struck the rear of an illegally parked tractor-trailer that was completely stopped with its lights out in a thru-lane of Blue Heron Boulevard in Riviera Beach. The result of this collision was horrific: The rear under-ride guard completely collapsed when it was hit by Officer Eberhardt's car traveling at no more than 30 miles per hour. As a consequence, the passenger car “under-rode” the back of the trailer, its roof was sheared off and Officer Eberhardt was instantly killed by virtual decapitation. He was 32 years old.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been urging tractor-trailer manufacturers to install safe under-ride protection since the early 1980's. Ever since the Reagan Administration, there has been a shift in federal policy away from mandatory regulation to voluntary compliance and the American Trucking Industry has claimed that the public is adequately protected from the well-known danger of death from passenger cars under-riding trailers.

Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co. (Utility) manufactured the installed rear under-ride guard that killed Officer Eberhardt. The company has been using 1960's technology for over 30 years, ignoring the government's plea to upgrade guard safety. In the 1980's the American Truck and Trailer Association, the industry trade group for tractor-trailer manufacturers, also urged its members to upgrade under-ride protection.

When the guard that killed Officer Eberhardt's was manufactured, Utilities had still not adopted the recommendations of the Federal Government or its own trade association. “Using unsafe 1960's technology in the 1990's is inexcusable.

To make matters worse,Utility never conducted any testing. Here is a company that ignores the safety recommendations of the Federal Government and its own industry, and it does not protect the public. Officer Eberhardt's life could have been saved if Utility has spent $27 dollars to install a proper rear guard, a small expense for a trailer that sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Eberhardt family's case against Utility is scheduled to go to trial this spring.