17-year-old fighting for her life after a suspected drunk driver hits her car

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — A 17-year-old girl is in an intensive care unit after a suspected impaired driver smashed into her car Sunday night.

“She’s the girl that always has to dance, she’s always dancing somewhere,” Maddie Anderson’s dad James said.

Full of life is how the family described Maddie. It’s a life that was almost cut too short.

“I really felt like I was going to lose her that night. I was pretty terrified,” he said.

Maddie was out swing dancing with her older brother Spencer that night. Maddie was driving them home when a suspected impaired driver hit their car.

“I looked down at my phone then heard her scream, I looked up and we were spinning,” Spencer said.

He said he got out of the car to try to help Maddie who was unconscious.

“It was really hard the day of the accident when I got to her side of the car and saw her bent over like that it was very scary,” Spencer said. “I checked for pulse, for breathing, tried to wake her up, and waited for the fire department to get there.”

Maddie’s neck, femur, and pelvis were fractured. She’s already had two intensive surgeries.

Her dad said she is on a breathing tube right now but is hopeful it will be off in the coming days.

“It’s tough to see my little girl suffer, it really is,” Anderson said. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that she is still here.”

They hope anyone thinking of getting behind the wheel impaired will think twice so no one else has to go through this.

“Don’t do it, it’s not worth it,” Spencer said. “It doesn’t affect you as much as it affects the victim, victim’s family.”

“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, I wish it wasn’t my little girl, but I wouldn’t want it to be anyone else’s little girl either,” Anderson said.

There is a GoFundMe set up to help the family with medical expenses, if you would like to donate, click here.