Mary Ehmann Auger, 90, whose crusade against dangerous tires saves lives
Her son was killed by an exploding tire at the age of 18
ON JULY 2, 1976, 18-year-old Eric Ehmann was working on a large truck tire in a garage in Phoenixville when the tire exploded. The rim struck him in the chest and head, causing massive brain injuries that killed him two days later.
From this tragedy, his mother, Mary Ehmann Auger, was able, through drive and stubborn persistence, to bring about mandated changes in the design of truck tires that have saved countless lives.
Her one-woman crusade took her to Washington, D.C., where she convinced the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to push for legislation to ban and recall the dangerous multipiece, split-rim truck tires.
Here was this ordinary housewife living in the suburbs, buttonholing government officials, insurance executives and tire-industry leaders to ban the dangerous truck-tire design that killed her son.
Mary died June 24 of complications of Parkinson's disease. She was 90 and lived in Hershey's Mill in West Chester; she formerly lived in Lancaster and Wayne.
"My mother was an extraordinary woman who touched, affected and bettered countless lives," said her daughter, Anne Ehmann. "An incredible example of what one mother, one person, passionate about her son, change and helping others can do.
"How one young man's short life, with the help of his mother, made such a difference in the world, affecting the quality of other people's lives and preserving the safety of others and their loved ones."
The danger of multipiece split-rim truck tires was virtually unknown when Mary started her crusade. She was able to enlist Goodyear to make training films about the dangerous tires available in vo-tech school programs.
She was interviewed by Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" in an Emmy-winning documentary piece called "Killer Wheels."
In a lecture at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in December 1980, Ben Kelley, senior vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told of receiving a letter from Mary Ehmann, as she was then known, after her son was killed.
Her major point was that what happened to her son was not a random occurrence, happening rarely, "but instead was happening often, was going unreported, and was producing consequences in terms of human damage that were catastrophic," Kelley said.
After her son's death, Mary more or less accepted what authorities told her, that her son's death was a "freak accident." But then a woman came up to her at her son's funeral and told her that her son had died in a similar accident a few months ago.
"Within weeks," Kelley said, "Mrs. Ehmann had heard of more cases of deaths or injuries from explosions of multipiece wheels in her area of Pennsylvania."
Mary's letter caused the Insurance Institute to launch its own investigation. "Our institute didn't, at that time, know a thing about multipiece wheels."
It started to find out. It conducted demonstrations to show what could happen to these wheels as they were being worked on by unsuspecting mechanics.
After contacting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, talking to workmen's compensation boards, engineers and lawyers, the institute concluded that "nowhere in the country was anyone systematically, reliably keeping data about multi-piece wheel separation incidents."
The institute turned up hundreds of cases of exploding wheels, including numerous fatalities. It petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop a standard "that would, in effect, outlaw the manufacture of such wheels, by imposing on all truck wheels a requirement that under blow-out and run-flat conditions, they stay together and retain their tires rather than flying apart."
"Perhaps the most cheering side to this case history of a hazardous product is that it shows that one person - in this case Mary Ehmann, a housewife in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - just one person can make a difference," Kelley said.
Mary was the founder of the Valley Forge Chapter of Compassionate Friends, a national organization for bereaved parents.
She received a number of awards for her work, including the Signum Fidei Medal for humanitarian advancement presented by La Salle University.
Mary was born in Delaware County to Alexander and Alice Ehmling. She graduated from Haverford High School in 1943.
She was a housewife and mother, devoted to her garden, her bridge club, bird-watching, horses, cats and butterflies, her family said, when fate changed her life. She was an active member of the Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli.
Mary was the wife of Arnold Auger and the late Richard Ehmann. Besides her husband and daughter, she is survived by a son, Mark.
Services: 11 a.m. Aug. 15 in the chapel of the Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli.
Donations may be made to TCF Valley Forge, c/o Rhonda Gomez, 12 Brook Circle, Glenmoore, Pa. 19343, or the Church of the Good Samaritan's Food Closet or HELP Ministry, 212 W. Lancaster Ave., Paoli, Pa. 19301.