All posts by Marianne

In Memory of Henry Gordon MacDougall

UPDATE March 13, 2026: Hundreds of people die every year when pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and occupants of passenger vehicles go under trucks. Please consider joining a STOP Underrides National Town Hall via Zoom April 15 | 8 – 9 pm ET |RSVP HERE

Your voice at this unique advocacy gathering will let your U.S. Senators and Representative know that you want them to pass the STOP Underrides Act of 2026.

SHERMAN TOWNSHIP, MI — A 16-year-old Ludington driver was killed in a crash with a tractor-trailer on U.S. 31, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The crash happened at 8:03 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, on U.S. 31 at the Sugar Grove Road intersection when a westbound 2007 Pontiac G5 failed to stop for the stop sign at U.S. 31 and struck a northbound tractor-trailer, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The vehicle went under the trailer and was dragged down the road, police said. 

Police identified the driver of the car as 16-year-old Henry Gordon MacDougall of Ludington.

He was treated at the scene by LIFE EMS and flown by Aero Med to a hospital where he died from his injuries, police said. 

The driver of the semi-truck, James Douglas Ellis, 51 from Bradford Arkansas, was uninjured. Driver, 16, killed in crash with semi truck on U.S. 31

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and #STOPunderrides. 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.)

Please sign this petition: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underrides

How You Can Help

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

In Memory of Javanti Jackson

UPDATE March 13, 2026: Hundreds of people die every year when pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and occupants of passenger vehicles go under trucks. Please consider joining a STOP Underrides National Town Hall via Zoom April 15 | 8 – 9 pm ET |RSVP HERE

Your voice at this unique advocacy gathering will let your U.S. Senators and Representative know that you want them to pass the STOP Underrides Act of 2026.

   

On 10/13/17 at approximately 0341 hours, troopers from the Frederick Barrack responded to the area of I-70 at Rt. 85, Frederick, MD for a hit and run collision.  Upon arriving on scene, troopers found a single vehicle with front end damage in lane 2 and a single person on scene.  Upon investigation,  it was determined that the vehicle was traveling westbound in lane 3 when the operator failed to control their speed and struck the rear end of a tractor trailer.  The vehicle, a Honda Accord was occupied by three people, two front seat passengers and one rear seat passenger.  After impact the front seat passenger was unresponsive and was taken along with the operator to Frederick Memorial Hospital by good samaritans that arrived on scene. The male front seat passenger was identified as Javanti E. Jackson,25 of Frederick, MD was pronounced dead at 0358 hours by physicians at Frederick Memorial Hospital.

The tractor trailer that was struck did not stop and continued on I-70 westbound.  At this time we have no identifying information about the tractor trailer other than that the ICC bar was broken off the rear of the trailer.  Fatal Motor Vehicle Collision I-70 @ Rt. 85

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.

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

In Memory of Lacey and Alexia Welch

UPDATE March 13, 2026: Hundreds of people die every year when pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and occupants of passenger vehicles go under trucks. Please consider joining a STOP Underrides National Town Hall via Zoom April 15 | 8 – 9 pm ET |RSVP HERE

Your voice at this unique advocacy gathering will let your U.S. Senators and Representative know that you want them to pass the STOP Underrides Act of 2026.

A collision on U.S. 79 between a car and a Mack truck took the lives of a woman and her daughter from Bearden. The woman’s young son was also hurt.

The wreck happened about 9:31 a.m. Wednesday at the intersection of U.S. 79 and Arkansas 205 on the Bearden bypass in Calhoun County.

According to a preliminary Arkansas State Police report, Lacey Welch, 27, 698 Ouachita 84, was driving a 2007 Toyota southbound on U.S. 79 when she ran into the rear of the truck’s trailer. She was killed with her daughter, Alexia F. Welch, age 9. Injured and taken to Ouachita Regional Medical Center was Trent Welch, age 10.

Car rear-ends truck at Bearden, claiming lives of mother and daughter

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.

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

STOP Underrides Bill to be Introduced 12/12/17; Petition launched on first day of #UnderrideAwarenessWeek

We have launched the Stop Underrides Bill Petition today. Please sign & share. Public support is crucial to ending Death by Underride.  #underrideawarenessweek

Sign Here: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

On 12/12/2017, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Rubio and Congressman Cohen will introduce the Stop Underrides! Bill. This important legislation will save countless lives.

DATE: TOMORROW, Tuesday, December 12th
TIME: 10:15 AM
PLACE: Senate Visitors Center 212
United States Capitol Visitors Center
First St NE
Washington, DC 20515

 

In Memory of Roya Sadigh

An Illinois woman was killed Wednesday night after the car she was traveling in spun out of control on a slushy Interstate 94 and was hit by a truck.

Roya C. Sadigh, 25, of St. Charles, Ill., was pronounced dead after 7:30 p.m. by the LaPorte County coroner’s office, according to Indiana State Police. She suffered severe trauma to her head and body. The driver of the car, Joseph Shereda, 32, of Chicago, was mildly injured, with abrasions to his back and body.

 According to police, Shereda was driving east on I-94 in the center lane when he lost control on the snowy and slushy road near Michigan City. After sliding onto the left shoulder, he overcorrected and the car slid and spun until it was perpendicular to the road. At that point the car traveled beneath a tractor-trailer and was run over by the trailer’s rear wheels. Illinois woman killed in snowstorm accident ILLINOIS: Police say car spun out of control and was run over by a truck

Find out more about Roya at the website set up by her mother in memory of her: https://stopunderrides.org/

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.

Support improving Underride Protection on trailers: Contact your legislators with this  User-Friendly TAKE ACTION online tool.

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

Discovery of AnnaLeah’s Book Collection Catalogued Online in LibraryThing

I can’t tell you how it felt to look online and find my daughter’s book collection all thoroughly catalogued. I knew that she had a LibraryThing account where she had kept track of her extensive set of books. But never until just a few moments ago had I looked it up.

Most of her books are boxed up and in storage because our current living situation did not have space for them. In a few weeks, we will be moving to a house where we will be able to organize her books on shelves like she would have wanted. So I had asked her brother and sister recently if I could somehow look her account up — thinking I would need a password or something. Lo and behold, they said that she was identifiable by looking up the author Rosemary Sutcliff. AnnaLeah, they said, owns one of the most extensive Rosemary Sutcliff collections in the world (at least among the LibraryThing membership).

Having a few moments to sit down tonight at the computer while I was actually thinking about it, I decided to try and find her account. She did not use her own name but I was able to sleuth it out, and I found her! I found my daughter.

I found the three books which she was reading when she last posted on her account — quite probably just before her death — knowing AnnaLeah. They were perhaps even with her in the car on that trip to Texas.

She read 47 books in 2013. I even found the last book she ever finished, or at least recorded, on May 2, 2013 — two days before our crash.  The Storm by Frederick Buechner

How many more would she have read in that year? How many would she have read in her lifetime? How many more books would she have added to her collection? What books might she have written? What literary worlds might she have created for others to enjoy?

Such a bittersweet treasure to have this part of her who is no more — who had so much more living to do.

AnnaLeah’s 30 Category Booklist

AnnaLeah’s History Reading List

AnnaLeah’s Book List for Danelle

And I’m quite sure, that one of AnnaLeah’s “friends” on Library Thing was her sister, Mary, whose collection was much smaller and not so thoroughly catalogued — but just as treasured, I know. A member since July 12, 2012.

Here are some books — probably from her sister AnnaLeah — which Mary received on her last birthday — August 6, 2012:

Of course, I love the photoshoot which AnnaLeah staged of Mary reading one of AnnaLeah’s books (which Mary had not actually read):

 

 

Holiday memories of AnnaLeah & Mary; Treasure the old for there will be no new.

To be honest, I hate the fact that I spend almost every waking hour figuring out ways to move the needle on comprehensive underride protection. I also hate the fact that AnnaLeah & Mary have no more chances to create new memories while the rest of us go on with our lives — getting older and making new memories without them.

I hate the fact that no one effectively took on the underride problem in time to let AnnaLeah & Mary live to see another day after their underride crash on May 4, 2013. And it keeps on happening to other families: The front of Padilla’s car was forced under the rear of the tractor-trailer. Man Killed in Thanksgiving Day Crash on Beltway in Virginia and this one 3-year-old girl dies from injuries in crash on I-15 near Moapa.

That is why I am a mom on a mission to make truck crashes more survivable. The only thing is. . . I can’t make it happen alone.

Here are some of my favorite holiday memories with AnnaLeah and Mary. . .

Mary Cranberry  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549573781791807.1073741924.464993830249803&type=1

Mary would be watching the Thanksgiving Day parade.  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/549586845123834/?type=1

Tutus for the whole family  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/551011044981414/?type=1

Advent 2012…Sleepover  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.555655971183588.1073741930.464993830249803&type=1 and https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.555655971183588.1073741930.464993830249803/555656811183504/?type=1

Broken Candy Canes  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/556124954470023/?type=1

Mary Christmas Card…Karth Family Photo “Christmas Card” 2012 created by Mary  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/556151264467392/?type=1

Christmas Memories with AnnaLeah  & Mary  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=559954657420386&id=464993830249803

Mary Christmas Angel…The glory of the Lord shone round about…  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/560141440735041/?type=1

Mary, did you know?  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/560630257352826/?type=1

Mary Christmas Angel–One: Jesus is the Heart of Christmas  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560713557344496&id=464993830249803

Mary Christmas Angel–Two: Are we done yet?  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560952533987265&id=464993830249803

Mary Christmas Angel–Three: O Holy Child of Bethlehem  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560953360653849&id=464993830249803

Mary Christmas Angel–Four (Finale): https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560953753987143&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/562522363830282/?type=1

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 1996:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=562705110478674&id=464993830249803

Everything’s Different This Year  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/563077863774732/?type=1

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 1998:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563082103774308&id=464993830249803

This year & last year; Before & After:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563186590430526&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2001:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563193017096550&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2002:    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563666620382523&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2003:        https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=564344183648100&id=464993830249803

Herod’s Slaughtered Innocents:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=564688433613675&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2004:      https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=564807693601749&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2005  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=565873553495163&id=464993830249803

Notice: The Last Thing On The 2013 Calendar (as written by Mary)  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/565931740156011/?type=1

“Though the Fig Tree Should Not Blossom”  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=565938886821963&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2005, cont.  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=565870523495466&id=464993830249803

Happy New Year! (Y2K) (AnnaLeah takes care of baby Mary)  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/565950123487506/?type=1

Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2007  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566452906770561&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2008  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566833013399217&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2008, continued  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566844333398085&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2009:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566944503388068&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2009, continued  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566946103387908&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2010  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=568828166533035&id=464993830249803

Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2012:   https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=568835126532339&id=464993830249803

MLK Holiday Observed:  https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/572826719466513/?type=1

The Power to Captivate & Comfort:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566439636771888&id=464993830249803

Roya Christine Sadigh, you will always be missed. June 19, 1978 – November 24, 2004

Roya Christine Sadigh, beloved daughter of Lois Durso, I never knew you but I know that you will always be missed.
June 19, 1978 – November 24, 2004
 “Not having her here is unbearable.”

Retrofitting the millions of trucks on the road could mean people like this man would live to see another day.

Early in the day, as travelers made their way to Thanksgiving celebrations, WUSA9 reported that yet one more person has died due to a defective truck design.

One person is dead after a car ran off the road and then crashed into the back off a tractor trailer early Thursday morning in the Franconia area. 1 dead in Va. after car runs off road, crashes into tractor trailer

Retrofitting the millions of trucks on the road could mean people like this man would live to see another day.

A man has died after a car crash on the Capital Beltway early Thanksgiving morning, police say.

Christopher S. Padilla, 30, of Alexandria, was killed when his 2013 Honda Civil crashed into the back of a parked tractor-trailer in Franconia, Virginia, early Thursday, Virginia State Police said. 

The driver of the tractor-trailer had mechanical trouble early Thursday and pulled onto the right shoulder of I-495 just south of Exit 173/Van Dorn Avenue, police said. 

He inspected his vehicle and was about to drive away when he felt the impact of the crash. 

The front of Padilla’s car was forced under the rear of the tractor-trailer. Man Killed in Thanksgiving Day Crash on Beltway in Virginia

However, if the decision is made to not retrofit, many people will die as a result.

The Retrofit Question: Should we add underride protection to existing trucks OR decide to let people die?

Yet one more family will dread the holidays because Death By Underride has been left unchecked.

I just learned about an underride crash in Nevada on Sunday. The photo in the news report tells the sad and senseless story.

The semi driver began braking and made an improper left turn into the dirt center median with signage marked “No U-Turn” and “Authorized Vehicles Only.” The driver of the Kia then struck the trailer of the semi causing the Kia to be partially pinned under the trailer.

A 3-year-old girl who was injured in Sunday’s crash on northbound Interstate 15 near Moapa has died.

The girl was airlifted to Sunrise Pediatrics with critical injuries and succumbed to the injuries sustained in the crash.

An 11-year-old boy who also was injured was taken by ambulance to UMC Trauma with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries. 3-year-old girl dies from injuries in crash on I-15 near Moapa

Also reported here: 3-year-old Utahn girl dies in crash involving semi on I-15

Yet one more family will dread the holidays because Death By Underride has been left unchecked. When will we act to end these senseless tragedies?