Eckerd College Student Dies After Crash
Michael Babboni
Trucking Accidents
College is supposed to be a happy and enlightening experience. It is a time to learn. A time to grow. College is not only a time for young adults to find themselves, but also to work towards being the best person you can be and to build a future. That is exactly what Maggie Fenney was hoping to do before she tragically met her death all too soon.
Student Death After A Head-On Collision In The Keys
An Eckerd College student has sadly died from her injuries after suffering from a head-on collision the night before heading back to her Florida Keys home. 22 year old Maggie Fenney from Islamorada was heading north on U.S. 1 when she crossed the center line and entered the southbound lane causing her to then collide head-on with a semitrailer truck.
She was then flown to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami in critical condition. According to the college, she was pronounced dead on Tuesday.
A Hopeful Future Put To A Tragic End
Maggie Fenney had been living in St. Petersburg while she spent her internship working with autistic children at the We Rock the Spectrum children’s gym. As a rising senior, she had been studying psychology and Spanish and was currently on track to graduate next spring.
Her mentor, Mark Davis, and Lantz had both stated that Fenney had been enthusiastic about everything from her education to her favorite TV show. Lantz says “Fenney was always quick with a joke and always asked about her day when she came home from class”.
Davis states that Fenney had still been unsure about what she wanted to do after she graduated or whether she wanted to graduate from Eckerd at all. She had been hoping that her summer internship would help her to make the decision.
Davis continues to state “The overwhelming impression I had of Maggie was her sweetness. She was such a nice person, so kind and friendly”.
According to Lantz, she had been texting Fenney on Sunday night when Fenney had expressed her happiness to return to St. Petersburg so they could celebrate her 23rd birthday the following week.
Around 40 people had gathered by the water on Eckkerd’s campus Thursday night in order to remember Fenney. Students stood arm in arm while Eckerd’s associate chaplain, Libby Shannon spoke about Fenney. Shannon says “This is your home. This was Maggie’s home, and this is where we grieve and, most importantly, this is where we love”.
The Danger Of Semitrailer Truck Accidents
According to the NHTSA’s estimate and their 33-month period study, 120,000 fatal and injury crashes happened nationwide during those 33 months. Of those accidents, 141,000 large trucks had been involved in those crashes.
Due to their large size, these semitrailer trucks are challenging to maneuver around. This means that they are unable to swerve out of the way to avoid accidents and that road hazards are much more dangerous in comparison to the average car. That aside, long hours on the road, lack of training, driver fatigue or other conditions can easily cause the driver to lose focus and result in an accident. Whether any of these elements had caused Fenney’s accident is currently unknown.