US Cellular customer relives crash

May 26--Lots of people dread Friday the 13th but Saturday the 14th turned out to be an unlucky day for April Drake. It could be the luckiest of days, depending on how she chooses to look at it. She was paying her cell phone bill Saturday afternoon at a counter inside US Cellular's offices at Main and 21st. A truck driven by Patsy Sisson of Cartwright crashed through the glass destroying the office and almost hitting her. The truck did hit her but she escaped with non life-threatening injuries. She says those moments during the crash and just after are still haunting her today.

Her injuries still hurt her almost two weeks later. She said, "I started having real bad pains in my hip and stomach. My stomach is swelled. They did a CT scan and they told me I was internally bruised and swollen. They are hoping the swelling goes down so they can do a follow up CT scan to see what's wrong."

The sound of a jet or a truck is what she said the noise sounded like. Then the crash happened and it haunts her still. She said, "I have PTSD, on top of it all." When she gets nervous and anxious is when it gets really rough for her. Drake said, "The other day I heard a truck that sounded just like that truck and I went into full panic attack. I calmed myself down by thinking about my family. I think of good times we've had."

At the moment of the crash she said, "It sounded just like a jet, the same kind that flies over the house. Then I saw the wall bow in, then it bowed out, and then Kevin (US Cellular clerk) was coming at me. Then I stuck my right hand out and my hand hit his chest and he went to the right. Thank God."

She saw the headlights coming at her. She said, "I put my left hand out and cut it on the headlight of the truck, nothing bad there though."

It threw her back and she hit the glass door and wall. "It was like someone caught me, and put me back on my feet," she said.

Most everyone has seen the video that went viral from US Cellular's locally owned office. It was featured on several national news programs and the internet. Drake saw herself on one of those viral videos.

"A view I saw, you could see the truck actually hit me," Drake said. "You can see my legs and feet in the air as I'm going back. I don't know how I kept from going under the truck."

She doesn't know the driver of the truck, Patsy Sisson. "She used to work for DHS and CPS I heard. It's been said she was given a breathalyzer but they didn't. I saw her daughter leaving with her."

She said most of her friends have seen the video. "I had no idea it would go worldwide," Drake said.

She's thankful to be alive. "I'm thankful everyone is OK and Taylor (US Cellular clerk) is OK. Right where that truck stopped, they were standing right where it stopped."

She said they could have been killed.

"They had moved from that spot just seconds before," Drake said.

The truck stopped after it crashed through the wall of the adjoining business. Farmer's Insurance and A New You Spa are housed next door and the desk in the insurance office is where the bumper of the truck came to rest.

Leslie Horner, the owner of Farmer's Insurance/A New You Spa said, "We don't normally work on Saturday but that Saturday we were. We were doing some ordering on the computer, sitting at that desk just moment's before."

The consensus is God was looking out for a lot of people that day. She said, "Everybody in that building had a guardian angel looking out."

US Cellular is closed while insurance repairs take place. Horner said, "We are open for business at Farmer's Insurance and A New You Spa."

Horner is optimistic about the future.

She said, "Both our business and US Cellular will be made whole again, once insurance repairs are finished."

Cindy McDaniel who with her husband Alan, owns US Cellular, has made the surveillance video available and is very grateful that the accident wasn't much worse.

She said, "We want to thank our customers and people who stopped by to help and check on our customers. When this accident happened, so many jumped in to help. We really appreciate that."

McDaniel watched the different angles of surveillance video they have on the accident. She said, "I watched all the video we have and all the people jumping in to help, it was nice to see!"

Contact Dan Pennington at (580) 634-2162 or [email protected].

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