The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports 45-year-old Michelle C. Yaeger and her two daughters, ages 8 and 10, were traveling in a GMC Yukon when the crash happened around 7:35 a.m. Friday at the point where traffic from Interstate 55 merges onto northbound Interstate 270 in South County.
Michelle Yaeger and her 8-year-old daughter, Kenzi, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Her 10-year-old daughter, Natalie, was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:40 a.m. . .
The highway patrol says the crash happened when Michelle Yaeger’s Yukon traveled off the left side of the exit ramp and into the rear of a tractor-trailer parked in the area where the two roadways merge. A fire started due to the crash. Family remembers mother, 2 daughters ‘taken from us too soon’ 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, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.
Retrofit Solutions for Rear Impact Guards to Prevent Deadly Underride
Michelle Yaeger, Natalie & Kenzi Brooks, Precious Ones 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.
