I have been following the story of Maria Federici, a local Renton woman, since the first tragic days after she was catastrophically injured when a large heavy piece of board crashed through her car window in February 2004 on her way home from work. The senseless “incident” of a man driving a U-Haul trailer, with an unsecured load, leaving a beautiful woman blind and scarred for life left all of us wondering how this could have happened.
Maria’s mother, Robin Abel, has been a tireless advocate for Maria’s recovery and rebuilding of her life and passionate about changing road-safety laws so this never happens to someone else. I have had a chance to meet Robin Abel and have wondered over the years how this quiet and petite woman and Maria have had the strength to overcome such overwhelming obstacles.
Robin recently released a book entitled “Out of Nowhere” with co-author Peggy Sturdivant, which tells her story. It is absolutely a captivating read from start to finish; I read it in one afternoon. I wept through the first chapter. From the first phone call — the one that every mother dreads, “Are you the mother of Maria Federici?” — and her harried trip to Harborview (she nearly ran out of gas on the way there, if you can imagine), where Maria’s injuries were pronounced “non-survivable” and “incompatible with life.”
“Are you here for her organs?” was one of the first things Robin had to utter during those first awful hours. The book follows Maria’s physical and emotional progression during multiple surgeries to rebuild her face and her life. And, it follows Robin’s story of navigating the confusing world of doctors, medical jargon and herculean efforts to give Maria back some semblance of her life. We follow the story as Robin and Maria must endure a lengthy trial with U-Haul and the vehicle’s driver to gain some sort of acknowledgment that a wrong had been committed and the unfair accusations that Maria was intoxicated behind the wheel. This fallacy was never proven; Maria had bled out over half of the blood in her body immediately after the accident, making the blood alcohol test unreliable.
Robin describes the hundreds of hours she spent lobbying in Olympia to get Maria’s Law — making it a crime to drive with an unsecured load – passed into law on May 12, 2005. Quite a remarkable feat by any standard, but to have accomplished this in just a little over a year after the accident, miraculous. Maria’s Law went into effect on July 24, 2005. I believe it’s important to remind people what the law states: “A person is guilty of failure to secure a load in the first degree if he or she, with criminal negligence, fails to secure a load, or part of a load …” and “causes substantial bodily harm to another. Failure to secure a load in the first degree is a gross misdemeanor.”
The trial ended with 67 percent of the liability assigned to U-Haul International and U-Haul Washington and 33 percent to the driver. Maria now lives in her own home and Robin continues to live at her home on Lake Kathleen, but their journey continues on. “Out of Nowhere” is an important and captivating read. And, secure your load, folks. Secure your load.
If you are interested in this book: outofnowherethebook.com
Robin Abel will do a book signing at the Renton Farmer’s Market, Tuesday, June 28 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Susan Bressler is an active member of a number of Renton organizations, including Piazza Renton. E-mail her at scbressler@comcast.net.
