Who:
Wilbur Hooks, 32, and Patricia Hooks, 31, were killed on Friday, 4/4/14, at around 8 PM, on eastbound I-694 in Fridley, Minnesota, when their 2007 Chrysler 300 crashed into the back of a semi-trailer close to Matterhorn Drive. Patricia had been pregnant and was due this fall. Both Hooks died at the scene on impact while the couple’s son, Bishop, 2, survived in the rear seat with minor injuries. The driver of the semi, Steven Pothen, 68, was uninjured.

How:
Per reports, the Chrysler 300 traveled at a high rate of speed, perhaps in excess of 100 mph, while weaving in and out of traffic until colliding with the rear end of a semi trailer. Both adults died at the scene. Patricia was wearing her belt and her airbag deployed. Bishop was in the rear seat in a car seat and was not seriously injured.

Why:
This was, sadly, another textbook example of a passenger vehicle-large truck fatality due to a rear underride. It looks like a full frontal overlap in the picture. Trailer rear underride guards are designed to withstand a 35 mph full or moderate overlap without causing catastrophic injuries (death) to the impacting vehicle, which indicates Hooks must have been traveling at significantly more than 35 mph (relative to the trailer) to have impacted with enough force to lead to that level of cabin intrusion (which would be classified as catastrophic, as the intrusion extended past the B frame of the vehicle). Indeed, various reports have suggested they were traveling at over 100 mph, which would have been at least 35 mph faster than a semi trailer traveling at 65 mph.

Catastrophic levels of intrusion are virtually unsurvivable. Despite the strong front safety score of the 2007 300, there was virtually no chance of survival for front passengers in such an impact. The reasons for the crash are still unknown, but they almost certainly were due to driver inattention and speeding. Family reported Hooks “loved to drive fast,” while the vehicle was reported to have woven through traffic before the impact, and no sign of braking was detected.

It is essential to repeat that this crash was preventable, but that virtually no passenger vehicle exists that would have protected them at the speeds at which they likely crashed, as the significant marker of trailer underride crashes is that the part that results in death–the trailer itself–is above the crash-absorbing structures of virtually every vehicle on the road.

The most significant part of this story, however, is not the deaths of the parents, but the survival of the child. 2 year old Bishop Hooks survived the crash because he was strapped into a car seat. It is unknown whether or not he was rear-facing, but given his survival with non-life threatening injuries, it is possible that he was. Of course, it was also necessary for there to be a survivable space within the vehicle, which clearly only existed in the rear of the vehicle. However, without a car seat, Bishop would not be alive today. He will live with his grandmother, per family reports.