HOLIDAY, Fla. (WSVN) — A Tampa-area woman is speaking out and sharing her story, days after a driver came to a smashing stop inside her home, sending her and a friend to the hospital.
Crystal Pankey said she was at her Pasco County home, Tuesday night, when the world turned upside down.
“It was just surreal,” she said.
The victim said she and a friend were sitting on the bed hanging out inside the residence when an SUV barreled in.
“I thought a missile came through the house. That’s the impact that I felt,” she said, “Like, I mean, I was on the edge of the bed, and it threw me all the way back into the back wall. When I came to, I couldn’t see anything; there was blood everywhere.”
Two days later, she was out of the hospital and nursing multiple wounds. Her friend is still in the intensive care unit, and now they’re left putting the pieces together.
From what they’ve been told by first responders, Pankey said, the driver lost control and went through the wall of the house.
“I thought a missile came through the house. That’s the impact that I felt. Like, I mean, I was on the edge of the bed, and it threw me all the way back into the back wall.”
Pankey said this is actually the second time a car has hit this house. The first time, a vehicle came from a parking lot on the side of the house, and that wall was eventually fixed.
This time, the car came from the backyard at a high rate of speed, through several fences, off a lip and into the air — finally landing through the wall.
“If it wouldn’t have hit that lip, from what I hear from everyone, it would have just came straight into the room and ran us over, and we would have been pinned underneath the vehicle, and we would have probably perished,” said Pankey.
In some ways, Pankey said, this wouldn’t hurt so much, if it was just another house, but this is her childhood home.
“Both my parents passed away in this house, all of my great memories are in this house, so I have not processed,” she said.
The question now is whether the house can be saved, or whether it will be a total loss.
The four people who were inside are going to survive, though Pankey said she might lose vision in one of her eyes.
The two people in the car, a woman and her child, will also survive.
Pankey said she feels no animosity toward the driver who, officials said, suffered a medical episode before the crash, but she wants to take the opportunity to urge those with medical conditions to ensure they can safely drive.
“I’m also very sad for everybody involved, because it’s so traumatic,” she said. “God definitely had His hand on us that day, all of us.”
The driver was not charged.
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