The reason I posted a picture of Jayne Mansfield yesterday was that I had heard something on the radio about Mariska Hargitay of Law and Order SVU being her daughter. I've never really followed the show so I googled her (I wish)...
She's the daughter of Mickey Hargitay a former Mr. Universe and Ms. Mansfield...
I then received a comment from Things Best Left Unsaid, suggesting that I do some research on the " Mansfield Bar". After doing a little homework I found out that the Mansfield Bar or underride guard is a strong bar made of steel tubing that is fitted under the rear portion of a semi-trailer to prevent a car from passing underneath the trailer in the event of a rear-end collision... this was the best picture I could find...
Since a semi-truck trailer is much higher off the ground than a standard car, without the underride or Mansfield Bar, the structural members of the car would pass underneath the structural members of the semi-trailer in a collision, roughly at head height with the driver and passengers, with nothing to protect them but the windshield. The Mansfield Bar name comes from a highly publicized accident involving 50's icon (and Anna Nicole Smith prototype) Jayne Mansfield, in which her car rear-ended a large truck, killing three of six passengers including Ms. Mansfield. This took place on June 29th, 1967 - before The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration required underride guards on semi trailers. The car passed under the truck just high enough that Jayne Mansfields head impacted the rear of the trailer... This next photo is from the actual accident site... it's pretty oogie so look away if you're squeamish but it demonstrates what happens in a crash without the Mansfield Bar...
It turns out that three year old Mariska was in the back seat where she miraculously emerged unhurt. She did have some plastic surgery on her eyebrow area to repair a scar resulting from the accident and ended up with a zig zag scar on the side of her head. This being my first real "research project" on the interweb, I hope I got most of the facts right and all I can say is... " Who knew?"
3 comments:
Coincidence...I saw the same show yesterday and had no idea she was her daughter. I just like Law & Order...of course I had to google the Mansfield bar thingy too- yikes. But I ended up at a site called everything2.com which was quite entertaining...reminded me of a less visual version of cracked.com, depending upon which bit of information you click...
In other words, I became sidetracked forever and got nothing of importance accomplished like usual... OK. Quit blathering. Sorry. Oh-- painters in Canada must have more intelligence than those I've met around here.
BD
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