Two students at Dublin Coffman High School and the mother of one of them were killed Saturday when the vehicle she was driving slammed into a concrete mixer truck on State Route 315 in Liberty Township.
Juan Perez Jijon, 15, and Francisco Cipriano, 14, were killed along with Cipriano’s mother, Adela J. Garcia, 34.
Garcia was driving a 2006 Ford Focus on northbound 315 about 1:30 p.m. when, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, she drove off the right side of the roadway, crossed the center line and struck the concrete mixer truck head on. Three killed, including two Dublin Coffman High School students, in car crash
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, & rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.
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.)
Support improving Underride Protection on trailers: Contact your legislators with this User-Friendly TAKE ACTION online tool.
Please sign this petition: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underrides.
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.
