Sobering Brush With Death

SPRING HILL - Austin Smith removed a piece of glass from his back Monday night, almost a month after he was thrown through the windshield of a convertible in a horrific crash.

But he's not complaining.

When paramedics arrived to the four-car smash up on U.S. 19 and saw the damage, they were certain Smith was dead. Smith himself thought he was a goner.

But he pulled through, against the 50/50 survival odds doctors gave him, and lived to see another day with his young family.

But his fight's not over.

Smith, 21, was kicked out of the hospital after a week when the medical coverage provided by the car insurance ran out. He was told to go home, but he landed a bed and rehabilitation at Health South through a charity program they operate.

But that help has dried up, too. Smith, his fiancee and their 17-month-old son live with his mother in Spring Hill. But her job is scarcely providing the money needed to meet the mounting medical costs and pay for everyday expenses. Diapers are becoming precious.

Lawyers have told Smith that his best chance for relief is to find the driver who started the chain reaction of accidents.

But that's easier said than done. What Smith remembers is driving back home in his mom's yellow Pontiac Firebird south on U.S. 19 around 11 a.m. on Monday, April 7.

He had just passed Northcliffe Boulevard, near the Outback Steakhouse and Winchester South shopping plaza, when what looked like a blue Ford Taurus crossed the northbound lanes and merged into southbound traffic. But the driver, who looked like an older lady, slammed on the brakes in the middle lane and almost came to a complete stop, Smith said.

Smith jerked a hard left on the wheel to avoid a collision, a move that caused the convertible to jump the median into oncoming traffic.

The convertible smashed first into a BMW and the impact tossed Smith, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, onto the roadway. Somehow, Smith wound up on the door panel of the convertible and he skidded that way underneath a northbound delivery truck. As the truck screeched to a stop, a pickup truck was hit and knocked onto the shoulder.

The Florida Highway Patrol's crash report is in agreement with Smith's version of events.

Michael Enfinger had a good view of the crash from the cab of a dump truck he was driving north to Brooksville. He described the car that cut off Smith as a newer model Ford Taurus, also, but he thinks it was gray.

The Ford's driver just kept going, even though "there' s no way they could have missed (the crash)," Enfinger said.

Throughout it all, Smith never lost consciousness, though it happened so fast that he can't quite piece the series of crashes together. He remembers seeing the undercarriage of the truck over his head and hot oil dripping onto him. The truck's driver didn't know he was there until Smith managed to pull himself out from underneath.

A witness to the crash rushed over and cradled Smith's head. Smith was certain the end was near.

"Don't let me die," Smith told him.

The first paramedics on scene later told him that they assumed he was dead when they saw the wreckage. They could hardly believe he was the driver of the mangled convertible 100 feet away.

Cloudy weather grounded medical helicopters that day, so Smith was taken to Oak Hill Hospital. Doctors agreed he needed treatment in Tampa, but he remained there for a week.

Smith suffered a broken femur, a partially broken spine, road rash and various cuts and scrapes from the glass. It will be about four months before he can walk again and that will be with the help of a cane.

The crash was a sobering brush with death that's altered Smith's outlook on life. Every moment spent with his family is treasured.

"It's changed everything, my thinking, my actions ..." he said. "Now I realize that any second could be your last."