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Hearing screams coming from a car full of teenagers that had just collided with their church van, Tina Byrd and other adults ran to where the car had skidded to a stop.

Byrd stood in the roadway near U.S. 311 and Cedar Square Road late last Saturday, Oct. 4.

Holding the hand of the injured teen girl in the front passenger’s seat of the wrecked Honda Civic, Byrd told her help was on the way.

Her back turned, the 35-year-old mother of two couldn’t see another car headed right toward them.

Between the two vehicles, Byrd was caught in the crush of metal, the impact severing her legs and tossing her upper body onto the side of the roadway some 15 feet away.

The driver of the third vehicle would later tell police she did not see what was going on in the intersection near Archdale — or the youth leader from the church standing near Byrd wildly waving his arms.

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A week after the accident, Byrd said God must have some sort of plan for her life — because she survived.

Alert, even as she was airlifted to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Byrd recalled, “I looked down and saw that I didn’t have any feet.

“From that point, I did not look back down. I knew it was bad, and I asked if I was going to die.

“I made peace with God as I was in the air,” she said last week from her hospital bed. “I told myself that if he pulls me through this, there’s something I’m supposed to be doing.”

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According to the police report and witnesses, the Forest Park Baptist Church van was traveling on U.S. 311, about 10 miles from the sanctuary, at 11:20 p.m.

Returning from a Christian music festival at Carowinds, most of the children aboard the van were sleeping as it approached Cedar Square Road. A 2008 Honda Civic, driven by 16-year-old David Jones Jr. of High Point, sailed through a red light, momentarily knocking the van off two of its axles.

Byrd, seated behind a friend who was driving, heard her say, “Oh no; they are not going to stop.”

“I thought we had actually missed them, and all of a sudden we felt the crash,” Byrd recalled.
When the van’s driver got control of the vehicle, she pulled it off the roadway, by then a football field away from the crash site.

Because the Civic was traveling at a low speed, the car’s occupants suffered only minor injuries. Still, screams came from the vehicle.

“I don’t think a mom anywhere can sit by and hear children screaming and not want to get involved,” said Matt Brogli, the church’s youth pastor for just two months.

He said Byrd would have gotten out of the van to check on them even if she hadn’t heard the screams.

“She’s got one of the most amazing personalities of anyone you’ve ever know,” Brogli said. “She has the most infectious laugh, and she’s never met a stranger. Her whole family is that way. You can really see God writing all over their hearts, from the way they talk to people and welcome them.”

Although it happened quickly, Brogli saw the third vehicle, driven by Lisa Mickey, 42, of High Point. But she didn’t see him trying to wave her away.

Investigating Trooper Greg. J. Seabolt has yet to file any charges, other than ticketing Jones for a stoplight violation.

“It would have been much easier for her to remain on the bus, but she put herself in harm’s way to help someone else,” Seabolt said of Byrd. “That’s the sad part of it.”

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Standing next to Byrd, Brogli’s shoes were knocked off his feet by the collision’s impact.
Byrd was found lying in the road.

Yet at such a horrific moment, said Brogli, who has emergency responder training, everyone was in place to do exactly what they needed.

David Gregg, one of the parents on the trip, helped pull Byrd out of the road.

Joy Ward, one of the church members, kneeled with her to pray — and to keep her alert. Brogli used Gregg’s long-sleeved shirt to tie a tourniquet.

He also called Byrd’s husband, Jason, on her cell phone. Recognizing the number calling, Jason Byrd figured it was his wife calling to say that she and their children, 15-year-old Taylor and 11-year-old Chase, would be grabbing a bite to eat or dropping someone off before coming home.

“He told me to get up there as fast as I could,” Jason Byrd said.

Meanwhile other adults from the van shielded the children from the accident scene — keeping them on the side of the van away from the street.

The medical helicopter was hovering overhead when Jason Byrd arrived.

By the time it whisked her away, Byrd had lost 40 percent of her blood.

“They said whoever put the tourniquet on her saved her life,” Jason Byrd said.

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Tina Byrd began physical therapy early last week.

“I’ve heard they’re going to try to get me out by Christmas,” she said of the specialist and nurses. “I’ve heard a couple of people say maybe just weeks.”

She is lucky that doctors haven’t found any damage to her major organs.

In addition to the loss of her legs a few inches below the knees, she’s in pain, sore and bruised.

“I’m trying to comfort them,” she said of visitors, before breaking down in tears. “I’ve found that a lot of people love me.”

Next up are weeks of rehabilitation. Byrd hopes to someday walk again.

“Just her being alive — we can make it through the rest,” said her husband, who recently lost his job as a finance manager.

When things like this happen, people often look to faith leaders such as Brogli for answers involving God.

“He promised he’d be with us and guide us, and he’d give us hope for eternal life, but he never promised that we’d be spared from tragedy and suffering on this earth,” Brogli said.

“I was pretty thankful that we weren’t putting flower memorials on the side of the road.”

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com