AnnaLeah and Mary

On May 4, 2013, AnnaLeah and Mary were riding with their mom and their brother to their siblings’ college graduations and oldest sister’s wedding. All of their hopes and dreams came to a screeching halt when a truck failed to slow down, hit their car, and sent them backwards into the rear of a tractor trailer. The rear underride guard came off the truck and the car slid underneath. AnnaLeah, in the back seat, had the breath of life knocked out of her — killed by blunt force trauma and mechanical asphyxia. Her sister, Mary, suffered life-threatening injuries and died a few days later, on May 8, in a hospital.

The girls’ mother and brother in the front seat were spared such catastrophic injuries because their part of the car did not go under the truck.

“The crash that killed AnnaLeah and Mary is considered an underride crash.  An underride crash occurs when a passenger vehicle slides under the body of a tractor-trailer as the Karth’s car did when it was spun around.  At the time of the crash, the rear underride guard on the trailer met the federal standard. But it failed to prevent underride and, like the guards on millions of other trailers, was proven to be too weak by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  In addition, side and front guards, which would also help mitigate these crashes, are not required in the US.” (Safer Trucking)

Mary Karth (forever 13 years old)

Written by Marianne Karth, Mary’s mother

Mary was the youngest of nine siblings. She had an infectious belly laugh and easily made others smile. A pied piper. She loved to read and was very photogenic. Mary loved performing.  She got a part in the community theater’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” along with her sister Susanna, and she had a lovely singing voice. 

AnnahLeah and Mary, only four years apart, spent countless hours together. They enjoyed going on walks together, particularly during their last year together.  The two shared vivid imaginations and would spend endless hours telling stories with a vast set of paper doll cutouts–many of them homemade.

AnnaLeah Karth (forever 17 years old)

Written by Marianne Karth, AnnaLeah’s mother

From a very young age, AnnaLeah had her own little imaginative world. With six busy older siblings, she was likely to just crawl off and explore on her own. And when we had to frequently say, “Where’s AnnaLeah?”, I finally tied bells to her little shoes.

AnnaLeah loved to read, write, and care for small children. She had a colorful imagination and keen intellect. She had a myriad ideas written down on random pieces of paper tucked into drawers, filling notebooks, or emailed to herself. She had created in her own mind numerous literary worlds peopled by characters with names and personalities.

“Countless words and circumstances bring these daughters to my mind. Their humor, joy-of-living, and insight filled our days.”

Marianne Karth, mother of AnnaLeah and Mary

Since the day they lost their daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary’s parents have worked tirelessly to prevent other families from experiencing a similar loss. Marianne Karth is a national leader and advocate for Underride and Sideguard protection. She regularly organizes national meetings, conferences, and crash tests, bringing together fellow victims, experts, engineers, federal regulators, and trucking industry to work on comprehensive underride protection.

“Large trucks have a dangerous design — a geometric mismatch between the bottom of the truck and the bumper of passenger vehicles. This allows cars to easily slide under trucks when there is a collision — bypassing the car’s crashworthy features, e.g., bumpers, crumple zones, airbags, seatbelt tensioners. The result is a compromise of the occupant survival space and life-threatening injuries. Federal legislators need to hear the message from their constituents that preventable Death By Underride is a senseless loss of life, which is allowed to continue by the federal government and trucking industry. That is unconscionable, unnecessary, and unacceptable.” – Marianne Karth

To support STOP Underrides, please visit: https://annaleahmary.com/