A New Hampshire family is recovering after surviving a terrifying head-on collision with an 18-wheeler on a snow-covered roadway last month.
Melanie Larssen and Robert Martin were driving back to their home in Fitzwilliam, N.H., after picking up Larssen’s 14-year-old daughter from her father’s house on Dec. 28, 2025, according to the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. About 10 minutes into the trip, the weather and road conditions rapidly worsened.
In a GoFundMe update, Larssen recalled that the roads suddenly became dangerously slick and icy.
“The roads got that bad, that quick,” she wrote. “We slid, the back of the Escape fishtailed out, and Rob tried to get out of the slide early enough to avoid the impact.”
Larssen told the Ledger-Transcript that during the slide, the SUV nearly became a T-bone collision before Martin managed to partially regain control. Moments later, however, their Ford Escape collided with a semi-truck on Route 101 in Temple.
“All we really remember is we started sliding, fishtailing, felt the back end of the SUV go out, and when I looked up I saw the truck coming towards us,” Larssen said.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Larssen attempted to help her daughter out of the vehicle but collapsed when her ankles gave out. She later shared that Martin was trapped inside the wreckage.
Bystanders quickly rushed to help and stayed with the family until emergency responders arrived. All three were transported to a hospital, underwent surgeries in the days that followed, and were discharged by that weekend, according to the newspaper.
While the truck’s driver was unharmed, the family sustained serious injuries. Larssen wrote in the GoFundMe that she suffered a fractured vertebra at the base of her skull, along with injuries to her sternum, left ankle, and right foot and ankle.
Martin experienced extensive trauma to his leg and hip.
“The impact caused the ball of his left hip to shatter through and nearly pulverize the socket of his pelvis,” Larssen explained in the fundraiser. “The ball of his femur ended up in his rib cage. He needed emergency surgery, getting six plates and 16 rods and bolts to keep his hip and pelvis together, and he is now facing a total hip replacement in the near future.”
Larssen’s daughter also suffered internal injuries caused by her seatbelt during the crash.
“She has been through a lot, but she is getting better and better every day. She truly is a fighter for sure,” Larssen wrote.
Despite the severity of the accident, all three family members are now recovering.
“I have no idea, none of us do, how we made it out alive,” Larssen told the Ledger-Transcript. “It’s damn near a Christmas miracle.”
Larssen added that the road ahead will be challenging, as ongoing medical appointments and recovery time have left both adults unable to work.
“But with that, that also means Rob and Mel are out of work for quite a while,” she wrote. “No work equals no income. We do not want to get behind on bills, and it looks like that’s exactly what is going to happen.”
She concluded by asking for support from the community as the family focuses on healing at home, noting that any assistance would be deeply appreciated.
