she died in a one-car crash. >> in november 1974 karen silkwood died when her car ran off this highwayert wall 25 miles north of oklahoma city. silkwood had been on her way to tell a reporter about what she believed were serious violations of safety standards at the kerr-mcgee plutonium plant where she worked. the plant is now closed. as a union activist, silkwood had charged workers were being contaminated by plutonium, a radioactive, cancer-causing substance used to fuel nuclear reactors. a few weeks before she died silkwood herself had been contaminated. nervous about her condition, she had taken sedatives. local authorities ruled the drugs may have caused her to fall asleep at the wheel the night of her accident. but some people believe silkwood may have been deliberately run off the road. after more than a dozen investigations no criminal charges were brought in the case, and kerr-mcgee was cleared of most of the safety violation questions. >> despite the suspicions around her death, the company that ran that plant, kerr-mcgee, was never implicated in karen silkwood's death. but h