‘I don’t know how we survived;’ Eagle Mountain woman talks multi-car crash that seriously injured her and her husband
Dec 8, 2024, 8:25 PM | Updated: Dec 9, 2024, 3:51 pm
EAGLE MOUNTAIN – A woman seriously injured in a six-car crash on Cory B. Wride Memorial Highway Wednesday shared what she remembers of the crash, and how severe her husband’s injuries are.
According to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, 50-year-old Paul Todd was driving west on the highway in a white pickup truck and tried to pass traffic. He ended up hitting Tim and Dana Smith’s black GMC Canyon pick-up truck head-on.
Police cited the other driver for unsafe passing, failure to yield to the right of way, and having no insurance on the vehicle.
Dana Smith said when she sees pictures of her truck it’s almost unrecognizable to her. She and her husband were heading to a doctor’s appointment when they were hit.
“I was tired, so I leaned back and just shut my eyes, and next thing I know I’m waking up in the ambulance,” she said.
Dana Smith was released from the hospital Saturday, but her husband is still admitted and could be for some time.
“My dad was found to have broken vertebrae and needed much more specialized care, and we weren’t sure what the severity of that was going to be. But it was severe, so he needed to be transported down to Provo,” TJ Smith, Dana and Tim Smith’s son, said.
Dana Smith is spending time with her five sons while she recovers.
“I had a brain hemorrhage, so I have like 22 stitches on my head right now,” she said. “I have a side hematoma as well that’s really big and purple, and it hurts a lot as well.”
“You never know when a split-second decision is going to cause devastation to people,” TJ Smith said. “My whole world would turn upside down if we had lost either of them, to be honest.”
Dana Smith said their lives changed within the blink of an eye.
“We all have places to go and we all have things to do, but is it worth hurting somebody that bad that it could potentially kill somebody?” she said.
A traffic maneuver that might have shaved off a few seconds has left them broken and in pain, with a long recovery ahead. Their sons are taking turns keeping their parents company for now, but they don’t know if Tim Smith will be home for Christmas.
“We’ll definitely make sure the Christmas spirit is shared with him, but yeah, it’s sad to not know, you know? And he’s doing what he can to recover, but that’s going to obviously take a long time,” TJ Smith said.
Tim Smith had a spine operation and it was successful, but his family said they still don’t know the full extent of what kind of permanent damage that injury caused.
If you’d like to help this family, click here to donate to their GoFundMe.
This story has been updated to correct the names of those involved.
