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In June of 1967, movie starlet Jayne Mansfield was killed in a gruesome accident when her car slid underneath the trailer of an 18-wheeler.

The trucking industry has known ever since not only the horrific deaths and injuries caused by these accidents, but also how to eliminate them.

“I already knew it was an 18-wheeler and a car, so I knew it wasn’t going to be good,” said wrecker driver Richard Ford.

They kept calling for more emergency equipment.

KHOU-TV

This car slid under an 18-wheeler.

There was no light then, just a stop sign and the driver of the 18-wheeler ran the sign, crossing the intersection.

In an instant the driver of the car, facing a wall of tractor and trailer, slid underneath. 

In this case, the driver died. She may have been the lucky one.

Kelleigh Falcon was in the front passenger seat that day three years ago.

She’s now 26 and this is her life.

“She’s labeled a maximum assist patient, meaning she can’t do anything on her own,” said her father, Terry Baker.

Her left side remains curled into a semi-fetal state. She can’t stand, can’t walk, can’t feed herself, clean herself and, of course, can’t care for her two little girls, who were in the back seat that day, and are still tortured by the memories. 

Baker now cares for them all.

The next time you’re driving alongside a tractor-trailer, notice the opening  and the fact that your car would just about fit underneath it - if it wasn’t for your head. 

How many of these “underride” accidents occur, no one really knows, except maybe the trucking industry, and no one there is talking - or looking for answers.

 In Europe, guard rails prevent cars from sliding underneath.         

Prototypes, built in the U.S., have proven to work at different angles and different speeds.

This week, in the East Texas town of Carthage, baker, a disabled former police officer  is in court suing Lufkin Industries, which built the trailer that, he says, destroyed his family.

The most telling admission in this case, came in a deposition from Lufkin’s former chief engineer, who conceded they knew better than anyone what was happening.

Three years of this have left Baker empty.

“I’ve gone through anger. I’m in despair now. I need relief. Music is not the same. I don’t laugh at the same jokes. My whole attitude is different. It’s changed me as an individual,” Baker said.

Lufkin’s attorneys have always said the company does everything the government requires. If they required side guards, they’d put them on.

But the federal government has made no such requirement and rolling, catastrophic possibilities are headed your way.

We should note, the federal government does require guards on the rear of trailers but not on the sides.

The trucking industry’s lobbyists are credited with stopping side-guards.

Attorneys with Lufkin Industries flatly refused to answer any questions about their trailers or this particular case.