Paul’s Accident Update–Jan. 28th

First of all I want to thank everyone for the calls, concerns, offers, and prayers. It is a humbling experience to see your support system shoot through the roof when something tragic happens. I am thankful for each and every one of you – I love you all!

First I want to start off with the accident:

Last night after 5, I received a call from Paul telling me that his truck died on the side of 85. The battery died as he was driving down the highway. He pulled off the road and began calling for help. The tow truck was on it’s way and the Hero unit was on it’s way. He called me back to tell me what was going on when all of the sudden I heard a very LOUD crashing sound that seemed to go on forever with Paul yelling in the background. I KNEW what was happening. I heard him yelling ‘I am OK, I am OK’ But I called 911 right then.

Another man was driving around 80 mph on 85 when he veered off the edge and ran right into the back of Paul’s truck and turned on it’s side. The 2 cars slid down the hwy for a while and stopped up against the guard rail. Because Paul’s battery was dead, his airbags did not deploy – the impact shot him up against his roof, then up against his windshield, and he landed up against the passenger window. He was able to kick his door open and went straight to the other car where he saw a lot of blood. The man answered Paul’s calls and Paul was able to help the man out of his seatbelt. NOBODY STOPPED!!! Can you believe that?!? Not one person stopped to help. The police were there very fast, thank goodness. But as the other man was being put into the ambulance, his speech was starting to slur and they were becoming very worried. He was covered in blood. We do not know any updates on the other man, sadly.

The miracle: Paul was outside of his car 5 minutes before the accident looking for jumper cables. The Hero unit was told that Paul was on I85 south bound so he was over on the south side looking for him – come to find out, Paul told them he was on Northbound and they wrote it down wrong. Had they heard him correctly, the hero unit would have been there when this happened and they would have been working on Paul’s truck. I was going to go down there with the boys to jump him off when he called me the first time, but he told me to wait a little bit. All of this could have been MUCH worse but thank God, things worked out for the best.

How Paul is doing:

He was taken to the hospital because of blood on his face and a lot of bruising. The CT scans came back normal. The swelling and bruising is scary looking, but that’s all it is, outside bruising. He is home and just needs time to rest and time to heal. He may have a cracked collar bone, right next to the plate that was put in from his motorcycle accident. His hip is also really bothering him today. We have a follow-up appointment with his Orthopedic Surgeon (that he knows from his other accident) so we will find out more and do more x-rays then.

Prayers still appreciated! Not sure of his full injuries yet. His car will be totaled so we will be looking in to all of that the upcoming weeks. He adored his old truck, but it had seen better days. Thank you again for all of your support! Stay safe out there!!