Separate legislation on sideguards first was introduced in 2017 by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. His constituents, Laurie and Randy Higginbotham of Memphis, had lost their son Michael three years earlier when his car got stuck underneath the side of a tractor-trailer after crashing into the truck making a U-turn. Laurie Higginbotham now is a director of another truck safety advocacy group, the Institute for Safer Trucking.