3 Hidden (and Deadly) Road Hazards (page 4 of 4)

Deadly Debris

Around midnight on February 22, 2004, Maria Federici was driving her 2001 Jeep Liberty south on Interstate 405 near Seattle, on her way home from her bartending job. Up ahead, a wall unit fell from a U-Haul trailer. Federici collided with the piece of furniture, whose base alone weighed 50 pounds, as it hit the pavement. As the wooden structure burst apart, big chunks flew into her SUV, piercing the grille and popping the hood. One five-foot piece shot through the gap below the open hood and the windshield. It hit Federici in the head, shattering her face.

Anthony Cox, an off-duty Seattle bus driver, was the first to pull over. "One side of her face was completely gone, just ripped off," Cox says.

Surgeons worked nearly 16 hours to rebuild her face. Extensive rehabilitation followed. Federici can talk now, but can't see, smell or taste. She suffers severe headaches and regular numbness on her left side.

Not long after Federici's accident, the nonprofit AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety issued a sobering report on vehicular debris, which the group conservatively estimates causes 25,000 accidents and up to 90 deaths a year (the group's definition of a debris-related fatality differs from the one used by Reader's Digest in tallying 427 deaths in 2003). The worst part: "Most of these are preventable," says Gerry Forbes, the study's lead researcher.

The group blames the problem in part on the absence of tough penalties. The federal government lets states regulate debris issues. Punishment often is a citation and small fine for littering or failure to secure a load.

In Federici's case, authorities traced a fingerprint on one wood shard to James Hefley, 28. He was later fined $388 for failing to secure a load and depositing debris, plus $640 for driving with a suspended license and without insurance. Prosecutors considered pressing tougher charges, but didn't.

"We would have had to prove that Hefley knew he lost his load and that the debris had caused Maria's accident," says Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County prosecutor. "And we couldn't."

AAA Foundation president Peter Kissinger says the outcome isn't unusual: "In most states, the fine for littering is higher than the fine for an improperly secured load."

Sometimes, victims can exact more justice by suing. In a civil trial last September, American Compressed Steel, Inc., a Kansas City, Missouri, scrap metal firm, was ordered to pay $3 million to the state and the family of Patricia Walker. The 25-year-old woman was killed in 2001 when a 37-pound metal plate that came off a company truck flew through her windshield.

The AAA Foundation reported that commercial trucks are the top violators in debris accidents, including the failure to secure loads. The most common form of truck debris: Pieces of blown tires, which multiple studies have shown could be reduced if drivers improved tire maintenance and inflated tires properly. "The commercial side of trucking needs to do a better job of inspecting and maintaining their vehicles," Kissinger says.

Trucking industry representatives object. "We're subject to very strict federal load securement regulations," says Mike Russell, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, a trade group. The real violators, he says, are do-it-yourselfers piling up their vehicles at home improvement stores.

Some states are cracking down on debris dumpers. Washington has now made it a crime to fail to secure a load that leads to physical injury. Conviction can result in a year in jail and $5,000 in fines. South Carolina lawmakers are considering a similar law.

State senator David Thomas proposed that bill after the death last year of a 9-year-old boy whose cousin drove over a large piece of metal, leading to a blown tire and a succession of rollovers. The culprit: a hook from a car-carrier truck -- a hunk of metal not so different from the one that, six years earlier, killed Alan Pakula.

From Reader's Digest - July 2005

 

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