FINDLAY, Ohio — A former semi-driver out of Findlay is pushing for change after claiming a major malfunction with a semi-door, left her badly injured.
Amy Larcom, who is constantly in and out of the hospital, now wants lawmakers to make the doors safer.
She said it's something she would never want to happen to anyone else and that's why she's taking matters into her own hands.
"It's a miracle I'm alive. I wanted to do something to change the hinges so it doesn't happen to nobody else," said Larcom with tears in her eyes.
Larcom had been driving semi-trucks for over a decade, until June of 2018, when she said a truck door landed on top of her.
She's blaming it on faulty aluminum door hinges.
Chris Hersch, who is a product manager at Honeywell, says he has had experience with metals for about 40 years now.
"Much cheaper to melt aluminum. It's easy. The molds that are required are relatively easy compared to a steel casting. So they find their way into mudane applications that don't require anything too exotic strengthen wise and for the most part they're fine," said Hersch.
However Larcom wants lawmakers to change the law and require semi-trucks to have different hinges.
"I want the hinges to be made like they were made 30 years ago. They were made out of steel. My brother said the hinge would bend. The hinge would never break. But I want the laws to change to protect all the people out there that are hard working truck drivers to everybody," said Larcom.
Larcom said she has so far reached out to Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who is in talks with her.
She's also still in litigation with both the company that employed her, which is Cousino Trucking and Martin Transportation Systems that actually owned the truck.
"The thing failed for some reason and when you design equipment of course no one designs for failure. No one wants to get that phone call. I certainly don't. I get them none the less. I don't like them. And you try to do your best to try and figure out what is going on," said Hersch.
Until then, Larcom is trying her best to deal with all the medical side effects left from the incident.
And she plans to stay in contact with lawmakers until something is done.
"I just them to know that there's a lot of people that, they risk their life everyday out there on the road. They have a very hard life, people that live on the road. Away It's not even that. I mean the doors...everything needs to be safe. You're not only talking about your life, you're talking about everybody out there," said Larcom.
We reached out to both trucking companies. MTS responded by saying they would send over a statement. However, as of Wednesday night, WTOL 11 hadn't received anything.
We are still waiting to hear from Cousino Trucking.