COMMUNITY
Opposite: After a life-changing crash involving a distracted driver, the Sandell family’s black Honda Civic sits totaled in a scrapyard. Below left: Kyle Johnson and Addi Sandell have bonded over a shared trauma. Left: Addi is supported by sister Dayna, 16, and brother Daniel, 8. Below: Kyle recovers in the hospital.
Now she can’t do that. She has to have a straw, otherwise, she’ll choke.” Sandell was forced to resume Addi’s physical therapy sessions over the summer. Despite the setback, she said the child’s doctors are optimistic. When Sandell’s mind wasn’t on Addi’s recovery, she said she dwelled on how her daughter could have been seriously injured not once, but twice, by distracted drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Association reported 3,308 people were killed in distracted driving accidents in the U.S. in January 2023 — nine people per day. NHTSA reports texting and driving is six times more dangerous than drunk driving. In the 2022 accident, Addi was a pedestrian when she was hit by a woman distracted by her phone. That’s no surprise in Arizona, which has the second highest rate of pedestrian fatalities — 4.17 per 100,000 — in the country, according to a study released by the Governors’ Highway Safety Association last year. New Mexico topped the same study. “The statistics are stupidly high,” Sandell said. “Then, of course, we get in this accident in May, so I started looking at the statistics for distracted driving and it’s not just an Arizona issue, it’s a national issue.” Efforts to educate drivers don’t seem to be working, however. The AAA Foundation reports two-thirds of drivers continue to use their cell phones while they drive even after learning the statistics of distracted driving. If that’s not enough, 7 in 10 teens of driving age who have watched a distracted driving presentation and learned the statistics said their parents “continue to
This is the second installment in a two-part series. You can read the first part here:
A drive to survive The war against distracted driving is declared in Maricopa
hour behind a semi and saw two cars, driving erratically, racing each other aggressively, weaving in and out of traffic,” Johnson recalled. “One of them got behind me and tapped my back bumper. When you’re going 60, it’s hard to maintain control when you get hit like that.” Johnson’s car rolled five times during the crash, ejecting him through the sunroof. A good Samaritan, Michelle Garcia, stopped to check on Johnson and call for help, he said. “It must have been the adrenaline, but I remember laying on the ground, trying to get up,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t the pain that stopped me, it was the fact that my body was like rubber at that point.” Johnson sustained a fractured spine, six broken ribs and a broken clavicle. Doctors also had to remove his spleen, which ruptured during the crash. Johnson spent eight months on disability and returned to his job with UPS in August. Even though he’s made remarkable progress over the last few months, the pain is still a factor he has to deal with every day in a job requiring physical labor, he said. “I worked really hard to get to the point where I’m at in my career now,” Johnson said.
text or talk on the phone while driving with them in the car.” Sandell said she feels there’s just not enough education. Or, at least, not the right type. “I think most people attend DMV-type classes and see presentations that point out the statistics and the dangers, but it’s still too dry,” she said. “It doesn’t hit home with them. We need to show the hard pictures no one wants to see.” With such a lackadaisical approach to distracted driving, Sandell said she fears it’s not a matter of if more devastating accidents like her daughter’s happen, but when. For Kyle Johnson, a 33-year-old UPS delivery driver from The Villages, that day came Dec. 29, 2023, a little over a year after Addi’s first accident. Heading home around 10:30 p.m., Johnson found himself in the midst of two drivers who were apparently street racing. The NHTSA categorizes distracted driving as any form of activity that prevents the safe operation of a vehicle. It could include applying makeup, texting, eating or in this case, racing. “I was in the right lane, near the Casa Blanca intersection doing about 60 miles per
BY JUSTIN GRIFFIN
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An impossible sign to ignore Sandell knew the direction she wanted to go with her new foundation, or at least she thought. Everything changed in May when Addi was re-injured during a trip back from Phoenix on State Route 347. A distracted driver rear-ended the Sandells. After the crash, something seemed off about Addi. She started slurring her words and shuffling her feet, struggling to walk. For people who have sustained a serious TBI, like Addi, re-injuries are common. The whiplash caused by the May crash left Addi with a Secondary Impact Syndrome diagnosis. Sandell said there’s no telling how the injury will affect Addi long-term. But for now, she’s lost some ground. “She’s regressed as far as the progress she’s made in speech,” she said. “She started having problems with word pronunciation, her speech became ‘slushy,’ as her therapist called it. She was able to drink out of a cup without a straw.
developed, Addi would have died. The story of the little girl’s ongoing recovery has proven to be a source of inspiration. Having become a sort of local celebrity, Addi’s story drew the attention of Trinity Broadcasting, a Tustin, Calif.-based religious television network, which recently offered her a contract. Sandell, who lives in The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado, wanted to use the newfound attention her daughter garnered to start a foundation to help TBI victims and their families. She launched a Facebook page documenting her daughter’s recovery, called Addi’s Miracle. “I was going to take Addi’s Miracle and turn it into a nonprofit to help support families who are new to the TBI world,” Sandell said. “It’s a very lonely journey. You have no idea where to go for help. You’re left wondering, ‘What’s next?’” What was next, it turned out, was more traumatic injuries for her young daughter at the hands of a distracted driver.
HESE DAYS, KATIE SANDELL thinks a lot about the dangers of distracted driving. It’s hard for her not to obsess
over the topic. Her daughter, 6-year-old Addi, was nearly killed in a distracted driving incident in December 2022 — and re-injured again in May by yet another distracted driver. Addi’s story and others’ have inspired Sandell to start a nonprofit aimed at educating people about the dangers of distracted driving and helping those suffering traumatic brain injuries and their families. For Addi, the trauma began in 2022 when she was run over by a car while looking at Christmas lights. The driver was distracted by a smartphone. Addi flew 100 feet from the point of impact. Her injuries were numerous. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and what’s referred to as an internal decapitation. Had she been a few years older and her spine a little more
InMaricopa.com | November 2024
November 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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