Victims Stories • Patricia Grimm
Victim Stories • Surviving through Trauma
F or much of my life, I enjoyed traveling and working out, staying in shape. Trying new things mentally and physically. I was working with medical sales, which I had been doing for thirteen years in Charlottesville area in 2011. One morning, on May 9th, 2011, I had a coffee meeting with one of my coworkers. Afterwards, I drove on I-20 in Orange, Virginia to a doctor’s office in that little town. I remember driving along, glancing at the speedometer showing 55mph, which was the speed limit. I recalled the time was 10:48 and I remember seeing—what looks like—a football field ahead of me. Suddenly, a car side- swiped another car. I remember thinking, “Oh, my gosh.” I saw the car heading southbound toward me, sideswipe the car that was further from me before rolling off the side of the road. I knew that my husband—who has worked in the automobile collision industry with the manufacturers and insurance companies— has always told me that vehicles that roll off country roads always compensate and roll back up. So, I looked to the right to look for a place to pull off; however, there was no where to go. Alas, I looked ahead and knew he was going to hit me. I remember screaming, “No” before taking the impact—and I was driving
55 mph; he was probably going at least 60 mph when he hit me head on. I remember thinking, “This is it. I’m not going to survive this.” I wasn’t scared. I figured I was going to die; I wasn’t afraid. Then…everything stopped. “For much of my life, I enjoyed traveling and working out, staying in shape. Trying new things mentally and physically.”
I opened my eyes and saw white, and I thought, “Ok, well, this is it. This is what death is.” Then the airbag deployed. I then knew I was alive, but then saw my right knee and ankle had sustained critical injuries. I quit looking yet felt the warm blood running down my legs, so I wrapped my left leg around the right one to create like a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. At that point, a woman ran to the car and said, “I called the police”. She said she had seen the driver speeding and originally contacted the police to report him. The police were on the way. I said to her, “I’m alive. I’m alive.” She then went to check on other victims of the crash.
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Annual Report • 2021
Mothers Against Drunk Driving ®
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