Tag Archives: grief

Video of Speakers at Underride Victim Vigil

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

Families of underride victims gathered on September 14, 2023, in front of the U.S. Department of Transportation at 1200 New Jersey Ave SE in Washington, DC — with crash test cars from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2017 side underride research in the background — to remember loved ones, who lost their lives due to truck underride.

The families rang a commemorative bell for over 750 victims, primarily from the last few years, and called upon the Department to re-evaluate publicly available data, end their decades of inaction, and issue strong underride regulations. Their message was this: Delay = Death.

Thanks to Sarah Haedrich, Vision Zero Coalition Coordinator for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), we have video footage of some of the speakers at this event:

We are thankful for all who spoke at the Underride Victim Vigil, including:

  • Dr. Elisa Braver, epidemiologist and safety researcher
  • Andy Young, The Law Firm for Truck Safety
  • Barry Davis, father of underride victim Ally Davis
  • Lois Durso, mother of underride victim Roya Sadigh
  • Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
  • Sean O’Malley, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
  • Abbie Bingham Endicott, cousin of underride victim Sylvia Bingham
  • Daniel Langenkamp (husband of underride victim Sarah Langenkamp) read a statement from Stephen Bingham, father of underride victim Sylvia Bingham
  • Nancy Avis, cousin of underride victim Carling Mott
  • Harry Adler, Institute for Safer Trucking
  • Jerry and Marianne Karth, parents of underride victims AnnaLeah & Mary Karth

A Record of Those Remembered in the Underride Victim Vigil

Media Coverage of DC Underride Victim Vigil & Press Conference

  • Congresswoman Schakowsky next to crash test car (no side guard on trailer)
  • STOP Underrides Commemorative Underride Victim Bell

A Record of Those Remembered in the Underride Victim Vigil

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

Families of underride victims gathered on September 14, 2023, in front of the U.S. Department of Transportation at 1200 New Jersey Ave SE in Washington, DC — with crash test cars from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2017 side underride research in the background — to remember loved ones, who lost their lives due to truck underride. The families rang a commemorative bell for over 750 victims, primarily from the last few years, and called upon the Department to re-evaluate publicly available data, end their decades of inaction, and issue strong underride regulations.

Their message was this: Delay = Death.

The names, included in this solemn event, were taken from a combination of sources, including victims from families known to me and memorial posts on this website. 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, from daily Google Alerts which I receive on truck 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.

This is not an exhaustive list — merely the tip of the iceberg. But I hope that it serves to demonstrate the ongoing nature of a preventable public safety problem. You can find these Underride Crash Memorial posts here. The 750+ victims of preventable truck underride (front, side, and rear, involving tractor-trailers and Single Unit Trucks, as well as pedestrians and cyclists), whom we specifically remembered on September 14, can be found here:

Names & Photos of Underride Victims Part 1 – The Tip of the Iceberg

Names & Photos of Underride Victims PART 2 – The Tip of the Iceberg

Names & Photos of Underride Victims PART 3 – The Tip of the Iceberg

  • STOP Underrides Commemorative Underride Victim Bell
  • Underride Victim Binder
  • The Tip of the Iceberg
  • The Tip of the Iceberg
  • The Tip of the Iceberg
  • Families of Underride Victims
  • Calling out the names & ringing the memorial bell

Media Coverage of DC Underride Victim Vigil & Press Conference

Video of Speakers at Underride Victim Vigil

Underride Victim Vigil & Press Conference on DOT Steps in DC

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

On September 14, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., families of victims of horrifying truck underride crashes will be standing vigil in front of the Department of Transportation in Washington, DC. We will be ringing a bell to memorialize the victims and sound an alarm. We will hold a press conference calling upon the Department of Transportation to require truck underride guards which will protect pedestrians, cyclists, and the motoring public from these violent and preventable deaths.

SAVE THE DATE Underride Victim Vigil & Press Conference FINAL

Participants will be invited to ring the bell for their own loved ones or for truck crash victims remembered in these underride crash memorial posts — the tip of the iceberg of precious loved ones gone too soon.

Underride Victim Memorial Bell

Simply Mary. . . August 6, 1999 – May 8, 2013

AnnaLeah and Mary,

Taking On a Safety Issue: Hazardous Railroad Crossings

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , , , , ,

I made a Public Comment at the meeting of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) on June 6, 2023, related to railway crossing safety. I was motivated to do so by two things.

First of all, I have listened to members of the trucking industry point to the potential of side guards causing an increase in tractor-trailer hang ups on high centered railroad crossings — using it as a basis for opposing a side guard regulation. Yet, in ten years, I have never heard them discuss how they could address this safety problem, which occurs even without side guards.

Secondly, when I was around 26, I worked as a Hospice Pilot Program Analyst for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan. After some time on the job, one of my coworkers had a baby, who was the delight of her life.  After my family moved away from the Detroit area, we kept in contact mostly through exchanging Christmas cards. One year I received a note from our former boss, who told me that my friend’s now 16 year-old had died when the car in which she was a passenger was hit by a train on her way to her high school. I wrote about her story in a post, Too Often, Too Little, Too Late; A Conspiracy of Silence , in 2015:

“Fast forward to 2013, when I, too, experienced the awful devastation of losing a child [make that two] to an unexpected, horrific, potentially-preventable, premature death due to a car crash [this time hit by a truck]. Now I understood what my friend had faced.

Just recently, I tried to reach out to her again–to no avail–after I ran across the news article and the picture of baby “Joy” when going through boxes at our home. I re-read the details of the crash and discovered that there had been no flashers or guard at the fateful railroad crossing–less than a mile from her high school.

As a bereaved-mom-become-safety-advocate, I wanted to know if something had been done to improve safety at the site of that crash 34 years ago. I was encouraged to find out, from the township responsible for that section of roads, that they had bypassed the option of flashers and guards and immediately closed off that particular dirt road where it crossed the tracks.

A good move. Chances are it saved someone. But it was Too Late for Joy.

Why does it Too Often take a death to wake us up to the dangers that were there all along?”

I did not hear from my friend for 40 years because her grief was so intense and it was hard for her to see me with my family of nine living children. In 2020, out of the blue, I received an email from her. Among other things, she shared with me what she and her husband and younger daughter had done following their tragic loss:

[We] took on the State of Michigan after the train crash that killed [Joy and her friend Hope].  After a public hearing, we convinced the state to close the railroad crossing near [the] High School where the crash occurred.  The crossing was at the bottom of a gravel hill and no warning lights or gates were at the site.  State inspectors would park at the top of the hill and walk down to “inspect” it, too concerned to drive down. The site could not be fixed to make it safe for others and the road leading to it is now closed.  No one else will die there.  During our investigation, we found that many other dangerous railroad sites like this exist.  I was too devastated to do anything about those sites in the way you have, and I admire your courage for that.

June 6, 2023

Administrator Hutcheson,

I hope that FMCSA will seriously consider our attached petition and do what is within your power to make railway crossings safer.

Respectfully,

Jerry & Marianne Karth

Here’s our petition to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: Petition to the FMCSA for Railway Crossing Safety Measures

Here’s our petition a few days earlier to the Federal Railroad Administration: Petition to the FRA for Railway Crossing Safety Measures

Relevant Resources On This Topic:

What can we learn about industry concerns regarding a potential side guard regulation?

May 4, 2013 seems like just yesterday; has anything changed?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , ,

There’s no easy way to get through that time of year when we remember how AnnaLeah & Mary were suddenly snatched from this earthly life. How can it have been ten years ago? May 4, 2013 seems like just yesterday.

Read this post all the way through to find out what advances have come about, or skip to the end to find out how you can help. Despite our loud voices continuously raising awareness and pushing for change, progress has been painfully slow. But these are some actions which the USDOT has taken:

  • Rear underride guards are now on the annual commercial motor vehicle inspection checklist (rule issued by FMCSA in December 2021). This is important because poorly-maintained rear guards increase the chance of crash severity.
  • After beginning work on an improved rear guard rule in December 2015, in response to our 2013/2014 petitions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finally issued an improved rule in July 2022. Incredibly, it fell short of requiring that the guards had the full strength already proven possible by the IIHS testing of nine major trailer manufacturers! We have petitioned NHTSA to reconsider this ill-advised decision.
  • NHTSA began taking applications for membership on an Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP) in July 2022. They finally announced the selected committee members in April 2023. The first ACUP meeting will take place virtually on May 25. I’m thankful that I will, at last, be able to sit “around the table” with a diverse group of stakeholders to hammer out reasonable solutions to this century-old problem.
  • Simultaneously with the ACUP announcement, and in advance of receiving any recommendations from the Advisory Committee, NHTSA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for a potential side guard regulation. Their cost benefit analysis is based on questionable data and concludes that a side guard regulation would not be cost effective. We are working hard to provide more accurate information in order to correct the CBA in favor of saving lives.

“How can I help?” I thought you’d never ask!

  • Pray for the ACUP members and for this process to produce meaningful outcomes.
  • Only 17 states have an UNDERRIDE FIELD on their state crash report form. This contributes to underreporting of these deaths. By 5:00 p.m. EST on MAY 3, submit a simple, brief Public Comment here. Tell NHTSA you want them to require (not merely suggest) that states have an Underride Field (and which indicates whether it was front, side, or rear) on their crash report form.
  • By June 20, submit a Public Comment on the side guard ANPRM here. Tell them why you think that there should be a side guard regulation (simple reason: To Save Lives).
  • Tens of thousands of underride victims have been a nameless group whose senseless deaths have been swept under the rug for decades despite the ingenuity of engineers to prevent horrific underride. No more. We would like to remember these Precious Ones Gone Too Soon in a special way. We hope to receive permission from the USDOT to install a Commemorative Bell of Hope at their office building in Washington, D.C. We will be organizing a day In Memory of Underride Victims — to ring the bell and call out the names of individuals who lost their lives to underride. We do not know every name, but we will include as many as possible. If you would like to contribute to the purchase of this bell or participate in this event, please let me know by writing to me at marianne@annaleahmary.com.
Side Guard Crash Test in Raleigh, September 2022
To remember how AnnaLeah & Mary lived — full of love & laughter — not merely how they died.

Too Many Lives Forever Changed

AnnaLeah and Mary, ,

Does it get any easier to remember our loss after nine years? Our lives, forever changed, have gone on — without AnnaLeah and Mary. Well, of course, we carry on. Day after day, we adjust to life without them. What else could we do? They weren’t the only people in our lives; life is still full of loving purpose. Yet it would be less than truthful to pretend that our daughters were somehow replaceable — that someone else could fill their shoes, laugh their laugh, fulfill their destiny.

Every death is hard. But when a death is unexpected, violent, and preventable, grief becomes more complicated. Knowing a loved one’s eternal destiny will be far better than anything this earthly life offers can definitely be comforting for those left behind. But when you learn that they could have been spared a horrible death due to a known unreasonable risk — that a truck crash could have been made more survivable — what do you do with the anger and frustration? And when the senseless travesty continues — at the expense of countless victims — the wound seems constantly exposed and harder to heal.

So every year the month of May, for which we had planned a family gathering to celebrate four college graduations & a wedding, brings endless reminders:

  • May 4 – the day of our crash & the day AnnaLeah died.
  • May 8 – the day Mary died.
  • International Bereaved Mothers’ Day (1st Sunday in May)
  • Mother’s Day
  • May 15 – AnnaLeah’s birthday
  • May 18 – first funeral in Midland, Texas (“AnnaLeah & Mary. . . They are where they belong”)
  • June 8 – second funeral in Grand Rapids & their burial in Big Rapids, Michigan (“Farewell to Mary & AnnaLeah”)

“AnnaLeah & Mary. . .They are where they belong”. . . funeral sermon on May 18, 2013.

Remembering AnnaLeah & Mary–the joy & the pain–with hope we carry on. Never have I known anything so hard to understand. . . {With Hope, Steven Curtis Chapman}

Eagerly awaiting the revelation of joy unspeakable–together!

AnnaLeah’s Too-True Story

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , , ,

True Stories Well Told recently published this all too true tale of AnnaLeah. . .

AnnaLeah was a particularly avid reader with a colorful imagination. She had a myriad ideas written down on random pieces of paper tucked into drawers, filling notebooks, or emailed to herself. She had, in fact, already created in her own mind numerous literary worlds peopled by characters with names and personalities. . .

Read more here: https://truestorieswelltold.com/2019/12/18/annaleahs-too-true-story/

AnnaLeah ever-creative wordsmith.

Compelling Documentary Tells the Stories of Underride Victims: Save Lives – STOP Underrides!

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , , , , ,

We are thankful to Cool Breeze Studio for creating this recently-released underride documentary — telling the stories of underride victims to shed light on this preventable problem.

DC Underride Crash Test Event Media Alert 032218

Industry opposition to life-saving measures deepens my grief. Peace in my soul & pain in my heart.

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, , ,

There is peace like a river in my soul but pain does not leave my heart. The ongoing inaction and opposition of the trucking industry, to solutions which could prevent such grief for others, does not make it any easier. In fact, the frustration and anger it stirs up is one more grief too hard to bear.

The power of misinformation and subtle suggestions have the power to sway and delay decisive action. This has gone on far too long. May truth and mercy prevail.

To still my soul in the midst of this raging battle, I am reminding myself of the joy and love of life shared by my daughters during their short time here on this earth before their lives were so abruptly ended by a preventable truck underride crash.

Mary loved to capture every moment on her camera–from the mundane to the amazing. That included our walk on the trails of Battle Park on a beautiful day in January 2013 in her new home of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Mary’s photo story of the walk with her sister, AnnaLeah, dad, and mom is set to Horatio Spafford’s well-known hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” Fitting in so many ways. Peace like a river attendeth my soul.

Photography by Mary Lydia Karth (and her mom)