On September 14, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., families of victims of horrifying truck underride crashes will be standing vigil in front of the Department of Transportation in Washington, DC. We will be ringing a bell to memorialize the victims and sound an alarm. We will hold a press conference calling upon the Department of Transportation to require truck underride guards which will protect pedestrians, cyclists, and the motoring public from these violent and preventable deaths.
Participants will be invited to ring the bell for their own loved ones or for truck crash victims remembered in these underride crash memorialposts — the tip of the iceberg of precious loved ones gone too soon.
Investigators say the driver of a Chrysler Aspen SUV was southbound on the interstate. He drifted into the west shoulder for an unknown reason, and the car slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler truck.
The Chrysler was heavily damaged in the crash. The front portion of the minivan stayed stuck to the 18-wheeler, and the rest of the vehicle was seen a few yards south. . .
Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield. Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes —front, side, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.
Lute & Adimada Fekitoa & Naomi & Keola James (KJ) Cook, Precious Ones Gone Too Soon
See Underride Crash Memorials posted here and at #STOPunderrides Tweets. To add photos or more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to be remembered, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com. Please use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form to provide us with accurate information . (Note: the map is currently not online; but we would keep the information for future updating and to aid in underride advocacy efforts.)
Note: In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what could potentially be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.
On Monday, March 8, truck crash victims’ families hosted a news conference to discuss their stories and the recent introduction of the STOP Underrides Act of 2021 — on March 4, 2021 in the Senate and March 8 in the House.
If you missed this important event, here are some useful underride links & resources:
It is a well-known fact that underride crashes (and, therefore, underride deaths and injuries) are undercounted. Investigating officers & reporters can help to improve reporting on underride crashes and deaths. Here are some tips, which we’d like you to consider: Truck Crash Investigation Underride Evaluation Checklist (2021)
We know that the trucking industry has expressed concern about potential operational issues which could occur when side guards are installed on large trucks. In order to address those concerns, we asked several trucking companies to give us feedback about their experience after installing side guards on their tractor-trailers. This is what they told us:
Deputy Anthony White and Deputy Kenny Ingram were killed when state troopers said their county-issued vehicle struck a tractor-trailer that had stopped for traffic in the left eastbound lane near Exit 190 on Interstate 20 eastbound in Columbia County, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. The deputies were on their way to pick up an inmate to be transferred to the Fulton County jail.
Officials say the crash happened when a Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Dodge Charger hit the rear of a tractor-trailer that had stopped due to traffic in the left lane. Both deputies inside were killed in the crash.Identities of 2 Fulton County deputies killed in crash on I-20 released
Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield. Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.
Anthony White & Kenny Ingram, Precious Ones Gone Too Soon
See Underride Crash Memorials posted here and at #STOPunderrides Tweets. To add photos or more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to be remembered, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com. Please use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form to provide us with accurate information . (Note: the map is currently not online; but we would keep the information for future updating and to aid in underride advocacy efforts.)
Note: In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what appear to me to be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.
Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield — resulting in underride and passenger compartment intrusion (PCI). Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes — front, side, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.
This geometric mismatch has been misunderstood for decades. Reports on truck crashes generally focus on the cause of the crash and not what caused the deaths. So underride is undercounted. I know this from firsthand experience having been in a truck crash (but not in the part of the car which went under the truck) and lost two daughters because of underride (one of whom was not reported as such in DOT data).
In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what appear to me to be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.
This is not an exhaustive list — merely the tip of the iceberg. But I hope that it serves to demonstrate the ongoing nature of a preventable public safety problem.
You can find these Underride Crash Memorial posts here.
Too often, families of underride victims not only face the trauma of horrific, unexpected, and preventable death by underride but they, also, have to deal with the frustration of failure to convince their U.S. legislators to support change.
On August 19, we hosted another Underride Staff Briefing — this time via Zoom. We are providing Congressional Offices with the PowerPoint pdf from that presentation, including comments from engineers with expertise in underride as well as underride families.
Underride tragedies happen to the constituents of every elected official. They’ve been made fully aware of both the deadly problem and its available engineering solutions. The ball is in your court, Congress. Do your job.
Aaron Kiefer, a crash reconstructionist, has been working for almost three years now to design and crash test a TrailerGuard System to prevent cars from sliding under trucks. The project is currently at a stage where he needs to move beyond a simple prototype to begin manufacture of a product which can be installed on a set of trucks to demonstrate its practicality.
In 2015, Aaron reached out to the Karth family, who lost two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), due to a truck underride crash. They had set up a non-profit organization — AnnaLeah & Mary For Truck Safety — for the purpose of encouraging underride research. Since that time, Jerry and Marianne Karth, have been working alongside Aaron to support his crash testing efforts. The ALMFTS website, fortrucksafety.com, serves as a means for other families and organizations to support this project by making donations which may be considered tax-deductible.
The Karths have offered to keep a record here of the names of those whose lives are being remembered by their loved ones through contributions to this life-saving project. Photos and memories can be included. Their stories can also be included in the Interactive Underride Crash Map.
If you would like to know more about this, or would like to contact us about joining in to support our efforts, please email us at marianne@annaleahmary.com. Hope to hear from you soon!
Aaron Kiefer, a crash reconstructionist, has been working for almost three years now to design and crash test a TrailerGuard System to prevent cars from sliding under trucks. The project is currently at a stage where he needs to move beyond a simple prototype to begin manufacture of a product which can be installed on a set of trucks to demonstrate its practicality.
In 2015, Aaron reached out to the Karth family, who lost two daughters, AnnaLeah (17) and Mary (13), due to a truck underride crash. They had set up a non-profit organization — AnnaLeah & Mary For Truck Safety — for the purpose of encouraging underride research. Since that time, Jerry and Marianne Karth, have been working alongside Aaron to support his crash testing efforts. The ALMFTS website, fortrucksafety.com, serves as a means for other families and organizations to support this project by making donations which may be considered tax-deductible.
The Karths have offered to keep a record here of the names of those whose lives are being remembered by their loved ones through contributions to this life-saving project. Photos and memories can be included. Their stories can also be included in the Interactive Underride Crash Map.
This man survived a truck crash in March 2017 because the trailer which he rear-ended had a strengthened rear underride guard. It is our hope that many others will survive truck crashes because of Aaron’s innovative underride prevention technology.
If you would like to know more about this, or would like to contact us about joining in to support our efforts, please email us at marianne@annaleahmary.com. Hope to hear from you soon!
