Kaylyn Hunter Gatlin, 21, was taken from the scene to OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City with a head injury. She was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., according to an Oklahoma Highway Patrol report. . .

According to the report, Gatlin was driving a 2017 Buick Encore north on a county road and failed to stop at a stop sign. Her vehicle went under a trailer being pulled by Rodney James Young, 33, of Forest Park, Ga., who was driving a 2015 Freightliner east on U.S. 270. The back tandems of the trailer hit Gatlin’s vehicle.

Gatlin was pinned for about one hour before being freed by Watonga Fire Department. Weatherford women dies of accident injuries

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.

Kaylyn Hunter Gatlin Talks About Her Life Goals the Day Before Her Crash (video)

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.

How You Can Help

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 I think that underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.