The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the victim Tuesday night as Karen Guccione, a 49-year-old woman from Wildwood.
The highway patrol’s investigation found Guccione’s Chevy Malibu drove off the right side of the road and hit a concrete barrier. She got back into the eastbound lanes and hit the right side of a tractor-trailer. The truck then traveled off the right side of the road, pinning Guccione’s vehicle between the tractor-trailer and the concrete barrier. The tractor-trailer then caught on fire. Driver killed in crash with tractor-trailer on I-64 in St. Louis County
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.
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 I think that underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.
