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A fitting remedy for upfitted trucks: companies that 'upfit' truck bodies for specific functions such as utility work should make engineering and design modifications rooted in safety. When they haven't, here's how to prove their negligence.

Article Excerpt
One January day in 2004, two women were in a car traveling down a country road following a large truck that had a lift bucket attached to it. The words "Acme Utility Co." appeared in large black letters on its side.

The three men inside the truck had no way to anticipate the tragedy that was about to happen. The women later would testify they saw a pickup truck approaching from the opposite direction. The pickup hit the Acme Utility truck nearly head-on; the Acme truck then flipped on its side, came to rest in a ditch, and caught fire. Two of the men died. The other survived with extensive burns. (1)

Most trucks rolling off the assembly lines at vehicle manufacturing plants are products ready for sale. They go from factory to consumers or businesses with few, if any, modifications beyond the addition of gasoline and license plates.

In other cases, however, the end of the assembly line is an intermediate step in the process. These "incomplete vehicles" may leave the factory with what to the casual observer appears to be little more than an engine, a chassis, and a passenger cab. They later become service-oriented vehicles like ambulances and utility, cable TV, or tree-trimming trucks.

Finishing them is the job of what the automotive industry calls an "upfitter." These businesses may add to the chassis a box structure that becomes the core of the finished vehicle, and perhaps some specialty equipment.

In the case of the Acme Utility truck, the upfitter had added an aerial lift with a bucket, designed to allow workers access to utility lines many feet above the ground; an outrigger assembly with footpads on each side of the truck, designed to provide additional stability when the lift was extended, changing the truck's center of gravity; and storage box assemblies, designed to hold equipment for utility line maintenance and service.

When they were done, workers for the upfitter placed a placard on the completed truck that said:

Conformity of the chassis-cab to U.S.A. federal motor vehicle safety...

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