The Most Famous Deaths Throughout History21 of 24
Jayne Mansfield. Death in a fatal crash. Her car crashed at high speed into the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed behind a truck spraying mosquito fogger shrouded in an insecticide fog. It went completely underneath it, shearing the top of the car off, and killing the vehicle's three adult passengers almost instantly. Shortly thereafter, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made it mandatory for all semi truck trailers to be fitted with under-ride bars, also called DOT bars or "Mansfield bars." The steel bar hangs from back of the cargo area and is designed to stop a car before it rolls underneath the trailer.
PeopleJayne Mansfield
Photo by Lou Jacobs Jr. - © 1978 Lou Jacobs Jr. - Image courtesy mptvimages.com