All posts by Marianne

In Memory of James Hendricks (November 6, 2022)

November 8, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

According to a traffic crash report, a 2015 Volvo tractor-trailer stopped for heavy traffic on I-44 when a 2008 Saturn Outlook struck the rear of the Volvo.

The driver of the Saturn, which sustained extensive damage, has been identified as 50-year-old James Hendricks, of Bourbon. 1 man dead after a 2-car crash in Phelps County Sunday

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.

James Hendricks, *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

In Memory of Sami Sadaka (November 6, 2022)

November 8, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

Officials with the Arkansas State Police say 62-year-old Sami Sadaka died because of the crash. . .

According to the ASP preliminary crash report, the front of the Toyota Camry struck the right rear of the tractor trailer causing the car to wreck. Driver dies after collision with tractor trailer on I-40

Sami Sadaka, *Precious One Gone Too Soon*

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.

In Memory of Lamarrieo Hughes (November 6, 2022)

November 7, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

According to a preliminary Arkansas State Police report, a 2019 Freightliner was being driven north on U.S. 79 in Fordyce. Lamarrieo M. Hughes, 33, was driving a 2011 Ford Mustang, which was also northbound on U.S. 79 and behind the Freightliner.

The Freightliner’s driver began making a left-hand turn from the outside line to the median crossover to travel south. Hughes’ vehicle crashed into the rear end of the trailer. Driver dies when car rear-ends tractor-trailer in Fordyce

Lamarrieo Hughes, *Precious One Gone Too Soon*

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.

In Memory of Ronnie Clifton (November 4, 2022)

November 6, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

According to troopers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), Ronnie D. Clifton, 69, was killed when the truck he was passenger in struck a tractor-trailer. Ardmore man killed in crash with tractor-trailer

Ronnie Clifton, *Precious One Gone Too Soon*

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.

In Memory of Kyana Lenon (October 31, 2022)

November 1, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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 driver was entrapped in her vehicle. Kyana Lenon, 27, was taken to University Hospital where she died of her injuries.

Four firefighters were also injured in the crash and taken to the hospital.

Initial investigation indicates Lenon was driving east on West North Bend Road when she crossed the center line and struck the fire truck head-on.1 dead, 4 injured after fire truck crash in Springfield Township

Kyana Lenon, *Precious One Gone Too Soon*

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.

In Memory of Gregory Porter (October 28, 2022)

October 31, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

The driver of a van, 76-year-old Gregory Porter, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Macon County coroner. . .

The minivan traveled north on Highway 63 before it crossed the center line and struck the southbound Kenworth truck on the driver’s side. Memphis man dies in crash with Kenworth truck south of Macon

Gregory Porter, *Precious One Gone Too Soon*

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.

In Memory of Veronica Williams & Deasia Washington (October 28, 2022)

October 31, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

The car hit a tractor-trailer head-on, Trooper Caleb Johnson with North Carolina State Highway Patrol told McClatchy News in a phone interview. . .

Troopers identified the two as 50-year-old Veronica Williams of Farmville and 19-year-old Deasia Washington of Tarboro. 19-year-old and mom killed in head-on crash with 18-wheeler, North Carolina cops say

Veronica Williams & Deasia Washington, *Precious Ones Gone Too Soon*

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.

In Memory of Walter Hooper (October 27, 2022)

October 31, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

Walter B. Hooper III, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash by the Barry County coroner, the state patrol said.

Hooper was driving a westbound Ford Taurus that crossed the center line and struck an eastbound semi-truck. . . Cassville resident killed in crash with semi-truck

Walter Hooper, *Precious One Gone Too Soon*

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.

“Economism Is Out Of Control” In Life & Death Regulatory Analysis

October 30, 2022Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyEconomism, EO 12866, underride rulemaking, Vision Zero rulemakingMarianne

I’d like to see an overhaul of the current federal guidelines for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of safety countermeasures. And it probably needs to start with an Executive Order. Without such a decisive action, we are likely to see a continuation of compromise which will pile up more senseless and preventable traffic-related deaths.

In the aftermath of a horrific truck crash on May 4, 2013, which I survived, I discovered that the major factor which stole my daughters’ lives — underride — was, is, and probably will continue to be woefully underreported. In fact, recent searching, of the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) files on truck crashes, has revealed the shocking extent of the agency’s failure to record underride deaths as such. Yet, the known-to-be-undercounted data on underride deaths is heavily factored into the formula for underride regulatory analysis.

Executive Order 12866, issued by President Clinton in 1993, sets out the requirements for approval of new federal rules by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which is a part of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Circular A-4 spells out the specific guidelines for federal agencies to follow when preparing regulatory analysis.

Order 12866 requires agencies to conduct an analysis of the benefits and costs of rules and, to the extent permitted by law, directs that regulatory action shall only proceed on the basis of a reasoned determination that the benefits of a regulation justify the costs. President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,” on January 18, 2011, to reaffirm and supplement Executive Order 12866 to further improve rulemaking and regulatory review. About OIRA

Of great relevance is a recent article in The New Republic by Timothy Noah, May God Save Us From Economists. Noah starts his piece out by describing the gruesome underride death of actress Jayne Mansfield on June 29, 1967, and then he says this:

The federal government took 28 years and three months to get its underride guard rule out the door. By then, nearly 9,000 more people had died the same way Mansfield had, by sliding under a big semi.

Why was three decades’ deliberation necessary to impose such a commonsense safety precaution? Because Mansfield met her fate just as the economics profession was advancing, like an occupying army, into noneconomic agencies of the federal government. The result was a mindset—an ideology, really—that dominates public policymaking to this day. The Marxists (of whom I am not one) have an excellent term for this ideology: Economism. At a time of extreme political polarization, an Economicist bias (pronounced eh-co-nom-i-sist) is practically the only belief that Democrats and Republicans share.

Brilliant observation. Of course, the stranglehold on underride rulemaking is much worse than he realizes (and I told him so via Twitter).

Noah follows that opening with a very lengthy discussion of how this mindset has affected many issues we face today. Then he closes off his comments by returning to the topic of underride:

Because Economism is out of control. Those Mansfield bars? In 2015, NHTSA proposed a regulation requiring that underride guards meet a higher standard of strength and energy absorption, because every year more than 200 people die, on average, the same way Jayne Mansfield did more than half a century ago. Still. The final rule came out this past July, but only after New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand inserted into the infrastructure bill language telling NHTSA to get off the dime.

It’s progress of a sort to wait seven years for a safety regulation instead of 28 years, and 1,400 deaths is fewer than 9,000. But when the new regulation was finally published, Joan Claybrook, who was NHTSA administrator in the 1970s, said it was wholly inadequate—“an affront to the families of underride victims.” Other safety advocates seemed to agree. Why wasn’t the Mansfield bar rule stronger? Because, the economists tell us, a human life is worth only so much.

Where will we go from here? Can we hope that the present Administration will issue a new Executive Order that takes a different approach to regulatory analysis? Or should we plan on more of the same — somebody getting away with murder? Rest assured, countless lives depend on this.

Delivery of a Vision Zero Petition to Washington; What I have learned in our battle for safer roads

In Memory of Carlos Robinson (October 22, 2022)

October 24, 2022Underride Crash Mapunderride, underride crash, underride death, underride victimMarianne

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.

Preliminary investigation revealed that a 2011 Cadillac STS was traveling westbound on the right shoulder. As it passed another vehicle, the car slammed into the rear of a parked tractor-trailer at high speed. The truck broke down due to a mechanical problem, authorities said.

The driver of the Cadillac, identified as Carlos D. Robinson, 31, of Chicago Heights, was pronounced dead. Chicago Heights man dies after hitting rear of tractor-trailer on I-94