19-Year-Old Critically Hurt After Being Hit By A Wrong-Way Driver, DUI Suspected
Dec 30, 2018, 9:24 PM
Sonya Wilson
DRAPER, Utah – A 19-year-old woman is in critical condition after her car was hit head-on by an SUV going the wrong way. The driver of the SUV was arrested on a number of charges, including investigation of DUI.
Police identified the victim as Sonya Wilson. Her family says she was a carefree college student and an active lacrosse player in high school.
“She’s fun loving, happy, excited about life,” said her mom, Anita Wilson. “She did some modeling and she did some acting and now she can’t walk.”
Sonya was on her way to her friend’s house for a sleepover around 1 a.m. Sunday morning. The two were on speakerphone together when Sonya’s car was hit by an SUV driving west in the eastbound lanes of 114400 South near 800 West.
It was less than a mile away from Sonya’s home.
“I could hear the car crash, the windows shatter,” said Maddie McCurdy. “She just kept screaming ‘my legs, my legs hurt, my legs are hurting me really bad.’”
Her mom arrived on scene shortly after the accident but said it took firefighters 30 minutes to extract her daughter from the car.
“Sonya was yelling out to (the firefighter) saying, ‘I don’t want to lose my legs. I don’t want to lose my legs.’”
The driver of the SUV, 30-year-old Bobbie Leigh Phillips, was arrested for investigation of DUI causing serious injury, marijuana possession and driving on the wrong side of the road.
Police say Phillips wasn’t hurt but the same can’t be said for Sonya. She has two broken femurs, a broken collarbone, broken cheekbones and a cracked pelvis and kneecaps.
“When they say critical and they’re doing the jaws of life and they’re tearing the roof off the car and it takes them 30 minutes, you really wonder is she going to make it,” said her father, Vernarr Wilson.
Sonya went through several surgeries on Sunday. Her family says she’ll be okay but it will be a long road to recovery.
“She’s strong. She’s one of the strongest people I know and she’s going to get through this,” said McCurdy.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with Sonya’s medical expenses and physical therapy.
https://www.gofundme.com/sonya-wilson-recovery-fund
