The family of the New York doctor who was killed after falling from a moving Airstream trailer is now speaking out about the tragic incident. The well-known Long Island pediatrician, 58-year-old Monika Woroniecka, was headed through upstate New York with her family to catch the solar eclipse.
“She loved that trailer so much and poured her soul into it,” said Helena Woroniecka, Monika's daughter who witnessed her mom fall out of the trailer. According to her, her mother named the silver RV “Nebula” because “it represented adventure and exploration.”
“She gathered shells from a beach at home and arranged them to spell ‘Nebula’ in a frame above the entrance,” Helena continued. “She would go in there even just to sleep at home when it was rainy and put so much love into it. She did also love to travel and explore, which is why my parents bought the trailer — they were planning to take an early retirement and travel to national parks and spend time exploring together."
Her parents, who share Helena and two other children, had just purchased the trailer two months before the tragic accident. “My mom loved her family above everything else, so the fact that my sister and I were coming home so everyone could go see the eclipse together — that’s what she was most excited for was spending time with everyone,” Helena explained.
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“She was so excited about this trip that for weeks beforehand, she was learning about space and researching different eclipse glasses and buying everyone’s favorite groceries," the heartbroken daughter continued. She went on to speak about the incident, calling it nothing but a "pure accident" that led to a fatal outcome. The daughter and mom were initially riding in the family's Chrysler Ram truck, which 59-year-old dad Robert Woroniecka was driving to pull the trailer along.
The family ended up stopping for ice cream at an upstate Stewart’s. The mom and daughter then decided to ride in the Airstream during the final 20-minute stretch of the trip to an Airbnb in Cape Vincent, police explained. Helena was lying on the bed when her mom went to “secure” the door. Monika was still clutching the handle when the door suddenly flew open and hurled her onto the pavement.
New York laws prohibit people from riding inside a trailer while it's being pulled by a separate vehicle. Officials at Airstream also said in a statement that their products “are not designed to carry passengers while in motion.”
“This was an accident. Pure accident, and there’s nobody to blame. This is nobody’s fault,” Helena said. “Sure, maybe Airstream doesn’t advise traveling inside the trailer. But we thought maybe that the last 20 minutes of an eight-hour drive on very quiet and slow country roads would be fine. And it’s perfectly legal to do so in some states. It was just a crazy accident."
However, the daughter went on to point out a safety concern in the design of the trailer. “The doors on the Airstream open the opposite way that you would expect. It doesn’t take an engineering degree to know that on any moving vehicle, whether a bus or a car or a trailer, doors should open against the wind, not towards it,” Helena said. “That seems like a significant safety oversight to me and seems like the only reason they do open that way is to protect the awning of the trailer.”
Monika was pronounced dead at the same hospital Helena was born in. “She was the most loving, generous, and golden-hearted person I’ve ever known,” the daughter said. “She was always, always thinking about how to lend a helping hand to someone, whether her family or patients or friends that had medical questions or strangers on the street. She spent her whole life helping and taking care of people in one way or another, and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to be like her.”
