ANNAPOLIS, Md. 鈥� 蜜桃视频app traffic reporters聽regularly catalog collisions that affect commutes, but those reports only tell a part of the story. Beyond the clean up and the investigation, survivors often start a long road to recovery.
For 25-year-old Katie Pohler of Glen Burnie, Maryland, the recovery from a nearly fatal crash in 2014 with a drunken driver has involved immense physical and emotional healing.
鈥淚 had maybe six or seven surgeries overall, the first of which was to save my life,” she said.
Pohler adds that聽she doesn鈥檛 feel especially angry toward the drunken driver that hit her and her boyfriend. But she does want people to be more conscious of how their decisions can affect someone else. 鈥淚 understand that people like to go out and have fun,鈥� she said, but advised that people who drink alcohol聽should always make sure they have a safe way home.
The accident happened on a sunny June day,聽Pohler recalls, when聽she and her boyfriend, Todd Green, were riding their bikes on a segment of Maryland Route 450 that鈥檚 marked as part of the Baltimore and Annapolis Trail. Their ride聽was violently interrupted by a car that crashed into them. The woman who was driving the car was later convicted of drunken driving.
Pohler was critically injured and Green had serious 鈥斅燽ut not life-threatening 鈥斅爄njuries. The pair were airlifted to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember the impact. As far as the accident itself, I remember about two seconds of the helicopter ride. That鈥檚 it,” Pohler said as she sat with Green in the kitchen of his Baltimore town house, two years after the crash.
Daily reminders of the crash that nearly took her life physically mark her. 鈥淚 had a broken fibula, a broken left arm and my right hand has plates in it,鈥� she said. Pohler also suffered fractures to her right collarbone, right shoulder blade and spinal cord.
Scars spread across her right shoulder out from under her sleeveless top 鈥� evidence of the crash 鈥� and there are other scars across her throat. Pohler added, 鈥淪omething went through to my airway and hit my vocal chords and carotid artery.鈥� She says that injury changed the way she speaks: damage to the vocal chords has聽given her voice a raspy quality. The plate in her hand restricts her movement somewhat, and Pohler says she doesn鈥檛 think her right shoulder will ever return to full function; that’s something frustrating for an athletic young woman who, with her boyfriend, loves to take part in sports.
Pohler talks calmly about the collision now, but she remembers that the emotional impact didn鈥檛 hit until after she鈥檇 gotten past the most intense parts of her physical recovery. She says it wasn鈥檛 until after she was out of the hospital that she learned how seriously she鈥檇 been hurt. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 think I was going to make it to shock trauma [center] alive 鈥� that was pretty hard to hear.鈥�
And聽this June, as the two-year anniversary of the collision approached, Pohler says she found herself feeling more emotional. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e going through rehabilitation and stuff, you have your mind set on that,” she said. “Once that鈥檚 over, then you have the time to really think about what happened, and I think that鈥檚 when it gets pretty hard to deal with.鈥�
Green was able to appear with police two days after the crash and appeal to area drivers to be more careful, especially as they approach cyclists. He and Pohler have gone on bike rides since the crash, and he reminds drivers that they need to give cyclists room on the road. It鈥檚 the law.
鈥淵ou need to give them three feet, and if you don鈥檛 think you can make that pass around them, then don鈥檛 do it. Just wait until there鈥檚 a better spot [for passing],” he added.
Pohler has also made an effort to get people to realize that they need to be responsible drivers. She even posted photos of herself in the hospital on her Facebook page with a message urging friends and family to take care. Green said,聽鈥淚 really like how Katie reached out on social media trying to push people toward thinking about those decisions. If you鈥檙e going to go out and drive, you鈥檙e there to drive, you鈥檙e not there to get drunk, or you鈥檙e not there to be texting and playing games.”
Now聽the one emotion she鈥檚 left with in the aftermath of the crash is sadness: feeling that time was taken from her and her boyfriend, time they could have been enjoying life instead of having to deal with a long physical recovery and the court case involving the driver who was eventually sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Pohler’s stance on聽the decision to drive after drinking is firm: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not worth it 鈥� it鈥檚 just not.鈥�
