Category Archives: Safety Advocacy

Quick look at the Underride Roundtable

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

Around 90 people attended the Underride Roundtable today. The discussions were lively and interactions were fruitful. More reports will be upcoming in the days ahead.

View the entire event here: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1100569

Reports on the event:

  1. From the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, host of the event: Truck underride roundtable addresses problem of deadly crashes
  2. Observations by Dawn King, volunteer and president of TSC: Crash dummy survives!
  3. News article by Jim Healey, aTrucks.com reporter who attended the Roundtable: Traffic Experts Debate How to Prevent Deadly Truck Underride Crashes
  4. Truck Safety Coalition: http://trucksafety.org/survivors-assistance/truck-underride-roundtable/.
  5. Newscast on the Roundtable:NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and WeatherIIHS Unveils New Safety Improvements for Tractor Trailers
  6. Interiew of Randy & Laurie Higginbotham, Memphis, TN, who attended the Roundtable Parents Turn Tragedy Of Losing Son Into Life Saving Mission
  7. The Virginian Pilot interviews Matt Brumbelow  Research Engineer from IIHS and Jennifer Tierney, Truck Safety Coalition: Safety Group Tests Rear Crash Bar on Trucks
  8. Here is a brief look at the event from the law firm of Andy Young, who was the moderator of the panel discussion in the afternoon:

Roundtable Display Table

All set up for the Underride Roundtable–to create survivable crashes & save lives

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

I am here in Virginia waiting to go tomorrow morning to the IIHS’s Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville for the Underride Roundtable. I wish that I was not here–not because I’m not looking forward to it, because I am. I am expecting it to help move us forward as a country to improving underride protection.

The reason, of course, is that I’m here because we lost AnnaLeah and Mary. And in the aftermath, we discovered that they might not have died if the underride guard had been stronger–more effective. But the federal standard did not require it to be so.

And that is why we are here: to change that. For somebody else.

We stopped at IIHS before going to our motel so that we could set up a table filled with handouts on the history of failed underride protection, as well as photos and mementos of Mary and AnnaLeah. Let no one forget the point of the gathering: to create survivable crashes in order to save lives.

Underride kills

Participants will see this reminder at our table:

 

Just had a phone interview with ABC. Pray for them to consider Underride Issue worth a report.

Safety Advocacy

Just had a phone interview with ABC. Pray that they decide the Underride Roundtable is something that they want to attend and report on.

Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy ALMFTS facebook banner Butterfly girls and birds 025

A simple way for you to support truck underride research & advocacy efforts

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety

If you LIKE the facebook page of the Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy law firm during the month of May, they will donate $2 to AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety (maximum $1500).

To add your support, go here and LIKE their page:  https://www.facebook.com/NurenbergParis/

Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy ALMFTS facebook banner

We are excited at this opportunity to benefit from a community-minded organization.

We were privileged to become friends with one of their attorneys, Andy Young, who also holds a CDL, owns a small truck company, and is passionate about truck safety. He will be the Moderator of the panel discussion at the upcoming Underride Roundtable at IIHS on May 5.

 

May Day: Remembering Our Butterfly Girls–Full of Life, Frozen in Time

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

Last year, I saw this statue of two young girls excited about a butterfly in a jar. It reminded me so much of AnnaLeah and Mary. We decided to get it this year to help us as we remember the 3rd anniversary of our truck crash, on May 4, 2013, which took Mary and AnnaLeah from us.

Butterfly girls and birds 025

They were a bit older (though not much), than these girls seem to be, when their lives were frozen in time–with no warning, rhyme or reason. Those of us whom they left behind will continue on with our lives–getting older, making new memories–forced to do so without them joining in.

We will be different than we might have otherwise been if they had not been snatched from us. And they have been robbed of all that might have been. Our two fun-loving, creative and adventurous girls.

Imagine how that unnatural disturbance is taking place all over our country and globe as many lives are unexpectedly and tragically changed forever. 33,000/year traffic crash deaths in the U.S. on average. Year after year.

We will remember you, precious ones.

AnnaLeah & Mary: Our Butterfly Girls

 

 

 

 

Just got home from the latest side guard crash test. Watch it here!

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

April 30. 2016

We just got home from helping with Aaron Kiefer’s latest side guard test. Watch it here:

Aaron will be taking this truck with his innovative side/rear guard to the Underride Roundtable at IIHS next week for everyone to see. Then he plans to leave it there in hopes that IIHS will do their own crash testing of his prototype.

31 Picture 546

Here’s my report on the first crash test of his side guard prototype on March 13, 2016: Witnessed safety defect in action at underride crash tests; this is what snuffed out my daughters’ lives.

Photo album from a day of crash testing from preparation to execution:

 

If only more had been done to protect against underride before it was too late for Mary and AnnaLeah.

Media Advisory: May 5 Underride Roundtable at IIHS to address truck underride deaths & injuries

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

May 5 Underride Roundtable will explore ways to address deaths and injuries in truck underride crashes

RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Truck Safety Coalition and AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety will hold a national meeting on the problem of truck underride crashes on Thursday, May 5. Researchers, government officials and industry leaders will gather to discuss how to reduce the risks for passenger vehicle occupants, bicyclists and pedestrians.

In 2015, 371 of 2,485 passenger vehicle occupants killed in large truck crashes died when the fronts of their vehicles struck the rears of trucks. Pedestrians and bicyclists also died in collisions involving the sides of trucks.

IIHS will conduct a crash test of a trailer with an improved underride guard.
Who:     IIHS, Truck Safety Coalition and AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
What:    Truck Underride Roundtable
Where:  IIHS Vehicle Research Center, 988 Dairy Road, Ruckersville VA 22968
When:   Thursday, May 5, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Crash test will be conducted at 12:30 PM.
Media need to be in place by 12:15 PM for the test.

Webcast available: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1100569
IIHS-HLDI
988 Dairy Road
Ruckersville, VA 22968
+1 434 985 4600

Map

An impressive group headed for the Truck Underride Roundtable at IIHS May 5.

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

I heard from Andy Young today. He will be the Moderator for the Panel Discussion at the Underride Roundtable next week. He is eagerly anticipating that event after just returning from attending  “The Commercial Vehicle” show in Birmingham England. He said that he has lots to share from that experience. I’m looking forward to hearing all about it.

I am also happy to be able to say that at the Underride Roundtable on May 5, 2016, over 65 representatives from the trucking industry, government, safety advocates, engineers, crash reconstructionists, attorneys, and media will be on hand at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Vehicle Research Center to “sit down at the table together” and discuss and demonstrate truck underride crashes.

This group will include representatives from:

  • Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association
  • American Trucking Associations
  • Seven Hills Engineering
  • Airflow Deflector
  • Accident Research Specialists
  • Sapa Extrusions
  • Truck Safety Coalition
  • AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
  • Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
  • Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  • Virginia Tech
  • East Carolina University
  • National Transportation Safety Board, Office of Highway Safety
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • J. Hunt Transport
  • Batzer Engineering
  • Injury and Crash Analysis
  • Vanguard Trailer
  • Smart Cap Technologies
  • UNC Highway Safety Research Center
  • Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
  • Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center
  • Interstate Distributor
  • NYC Citywide Adminstrative Services
  • Nurenberg Paris Law Firm
  • Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
  • Sanders & Parks Law Firm
  • The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • North Carolina Department of Transportation
  • Cargo Transporters
  • Stoughton Trailers
  • Great Dane Trailers
  • Wabash National
  • North Carolina State Highway Patrol
  • City of Boston, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
  • Interstate Distributors
  • Media representatives
  • Underride victims and families
  • and joined by an unknown number of individuals globally as the event will be livestreaming at this webcast link.

It is unfortunate that, over the decades in which no adequate solution to this tragic problem has come about, there has been much miscommunication, misunderstanding, misinformation, and mistakes made. I, for one, am ready to encourage things to move forward with positive momentum–aiming for the best possible underride protection.

VA Tech guard installed
Virginia Tech Senior Design Team Underride Guard, 2016

Driven distracted lately? You and who else? Where will we end up?

Safety Advocacy, , , , , ,

With a national focus on Distracted Driving this month, I thought that I would highlight the posts which I have written on that deadly subject: Distracted Driving posts on annaleahmary.com.

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“2016 GHSA Annual Meeting Crossroads: The Intersection of Technology and Driver Behavior”

Safety Advocacy

2016 GHSA Annual Meeting Crossroads: The Intersection of Technology and Driver Behavior

Seattle, Washington | Aug. 27 – 31

Agenda | Hotel & Travel | Sponsor Opportunities

Preliminary Agenda

2016 Annual Meeting Home