In Memory of Kelsey Mayer (March 23, 2023)

Friends and loved ones are mourning the death of Kelsey Mayer, an 18-year-old student-athlete at Keene State College who died from injuries sustained in a crash with a logging truck in New Hampshire last week.

. . . The initial investigation indicated that Mayer, a resident of Concord, was driving westbound on Route 9 with a passenger, 19-year-old Allison Yanski of Concord, when her car crashed into the logging truck.

The tractor-trailer was pulling into a nearby logging site when it was hit by Mayer’s car, according to police.

Both Yanski and Mayer had to be extricated from the car by first responders. Yanski was taken to an area hospital with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries, while Mayer was hospitalized in critical condition after the crash. Keene State mourns 18-year-old women’s soccer player, killed in crash with logging truck

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 —frontside, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.

Kelsey Mayer, Precious One 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.)

How You Can Help

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 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.

We are asking that people send us crash reports for collisions with trucks which they suspect involved underride. Send them to marianne@annaleahmary.com. We will submit these as complaints to USDOT. Read more here: Launching a Campaign To Flood NHTSA With Underride Complaint Reports.

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