'It was flying quickly clear across my lane'

Everything about the first part of Linda Kofford-DiCicco's day on August 30th was ordinary. She worked her swing shift as a triage nurse and she drove home south along Interstate 5. But near Federal Way, her ordinary day suddenly turned desperate.

"I remember thinking, 'I wonder if this is going to be it," DiCicco said, recalling the moment when a heavy aluminum ingot came off a semi-truck that was southbound on I-5. "It was flying quickly clear across my lane of traffic."

At 175 pounds, it became a deadly missile. With cars on both sides, DiCicco did the only thing she could, "I gripped the steering wheel." DiCicco had nowhere to go. "I don't have a choice, I have to drive over it."

The heavy aluminum cylinder caused DiCicco's car to spin around, roll and come to rest on the bank of the freeway. Her car was totaled.

"I think I have a really big guardian angel," she said. "I'm very lucky to be here."

DiCicco collision was the latest in a string of serious injuries and deaths caused by drivers who didn't check the loads they were hauling. That's in spite of new laws, higher fines, and even the potential for criminal charges.

"This is a criminal thing," Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Fisher said of drivers with unsecured loads.

Because DiCicco was injured, the driver who lost the aluminum ingot faces criminal gross misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to a year in jail.

The law allowing those charges exists because of what happened to Maria Federici. It's been more than three years since Federici nearly lost her life because of an unsecured load. Since then, new laws have been passed and people have been prosecuted.

So why are these crashes still happening?

The list is horrifying.

On January 23, 2006, Sandy Harmon died when his car was crushed by other cars that were swerving to avoid a large tarp that fell off a semi truck.

"My son is gone for somebody's negligence," said his mother, Laraine Harmon.

Less than a month later, on February 13, Elizabeth Chaffin and her niece were nearly killed when loose plywood crashed through their windshield.

"I had glass all over my face, in my nose, my ears, mouth," Chaffin said."It was pretty traumatic."

And then on August 18, 2006, Gavin Coffee was killed on I-5 while swerving to avoid shelves that had fallen from the back of a pickup truck.

At that time, Federici thought the law named after her would make a difference. "Why anymore? By now you'd think at some point someone would get it," she said.

But a year after Coffee's death, unsecured loads are still causing serious accidents.

So KOMO 4 Problem Solvers went on the road, watching traffic, checking local garbage transfer stations. What we saw is enough to scare anyone.

Truck, after truck, after truck - even cars - showing up, stacked to the gills, with no rope, no net -- nothing. We watched a semi driving south on I-5 through downtown Seattle hauling a load of scrap metal with no cover on top and nothing to hold the load down.

We met with state troopers at a South King County transfer station. But even with two state patrol cruisers in plain sight, a man drove up in a pickup truck with a mattress wobbling off the back covering a load of junk destined for the dump - and he was oblivious to the problem.

Trooper Fisher's reaction? "To me that's unsecured," he said. "That could do some damage."

We did some digging and found enforcement is stronger. Every year the State Patrol has written more tickets for failing to secure a load.

In 2005 it was 1,627 tickets, and in 2006 the number of tickets grew to 1,758. The estimates for this year bump it up to 1,868.

And King County is handing out more fines at it's transfer stations; 750 last year, and nearly double already this year at 1,408, just through the first of October.

But DiCicco is living evidence that people still don't always get it.

Trooper Fisher thinks people are getting better, they're just not good enough.

"They're taking it seriously and I know you wouldn't do it on purpose, but come on, you gotta think about it," Fisher said.

DiCicco will recover from the cuts to her scalp and arms, but she's still afraid to drive and may have a mild brain injury. She wants others to be aware of her injuries so they'll think twice when hauling a load.

"I think I have a responsibility both for myself and for all of us out there on the freeway," she said.

The State Patrol says everyone has a responsibility -- first to secure their own loads, but also to look around. If you see a driver with an unsafe load, call 911. The Patrol says it will respond and the calls can make a difference.

You can read more about regulations, fines and tips on how to safely secure your load at the King County Solid Waste Division web site