A man was killed after his car crashed into the back of a semi-truck in Zion Saturday morning. . .
The driver inside the car, identified as 51-year-old Marcus Bolar of Waukegan by the Lake County Coroner’s Office, was pronounced dead at the scene. 1 killed after car crashes into rear of semi-truck in Lake County; Victim ID’d
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.
Retrofit Solutions for Rear Impact Guards to Prevent Deadly Underride
Marcus Bolar, Precious One Gone Too Soon
AMERICA’S DANGEROUS TRUCKS (PBS/Frontline Underride Documentary)
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: Secretary Pete, It’s Past Time To End Death By Underride!
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.
Marcus was not only a long time friend of nearly 20 years of mine, he was also one of my managers when I started working and one of my brothers best friends. I thought those beams that hang low on the back of semis were a requirement now so that cars cannot do what allegedly happened in this incident. I’m deeply saddened. I live on the west coast in California as of this summer and I don’t even know if I’ll be able to make it back home (Chicago) to attend Marcus’ services. He will GREATLY be missed.
I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend and for your brother as well.
If you want to learn more about this preventable problem, we have many posts and videos on our website.
Also, here are some resources:
https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-federal-rule-on-truck-underride-protection-does-not-go-far-enough
https://www.iihs.org/topics/large-trucks/truck-underride
https://annaleahmary.com/2020/12/retrofit-solutions-for-rear-impact-guards-to-prevent-deadly-underride/
Thank you so much
Also, Marcus Bolar is a Veteran. I found out his services will be where he’s originally from in South Carolina. Not where I met him in my hometown of Chicago.