CAMBRIDGE, Minn. – Anna Sparrow remembers 1988 and the four years that followed like it was yesterday.
It’s the year she met her husband Mark. The next year they married. In 1991, they had a son together. But on August 24th 1992, a day KARE 11 covered in rural Scandia and a day Anna cannot forget now.
"He just turned 34, 12 days before. So I was a 33-year-old widow. Two kids."
Anna and Mark were driving behind a truck when a piece of sheet metal had fallen off and flew through their windshield injuring Anna who was the passenger but killing Mark in the driver’s seat instantly.
"And the people that have died when boats and things have fallen off. It hurts me. I grieve again. I grieve for them," Anna says.
On Friday, Anna was reminded by all of it when the Minnesota State Patrol shared a Facebook post showing a Jeep along 494 in Maple Grove with a piece of metal through the windshield. Last week troopers say the woman who was driving the jeep survived with a few small cuts after the piece of metal fell from a truck, bounced off the interstate and through the windshield.
"So it’s every time I see unsecured loads. I want to call. I have called on some. People make fun of it, they think it’s a joke but it’s not, it’s not funny. People die."
For Anna Sparrow, she hopes for the hundreds of people who commented on the post and those who shared it that her story will serve as a reminder to keep loads secure. According to the State Patrol, troopers responded to 5,000 debris in the roadway calls in 2016. The majority of which occurred in the Twin Cities.
"People have to listen. They have to make sure everything is secure. If I see family and friends, I make sure. I make sure. Because it has affected my family."