(MOBILE, Ala.) Eukheria Collins is a star saxophone player, débutante and college homecoming queen. Just days ago, she almost lost it all because of a drunk driver.
Collins and two friends were headed to Montgomery for a weekend trip when they confronted a car driving the wrong way on the interstate.
"I remember seeing a car coming around the corner," she says. "We swerved to the left so she could miss us, and instead of her keeping straight she swerved into us."
Eukheria came to in a sea of blood. A stranger called her mother.
"When I got the phone call I was devastated," says Zsaquez Johnson-Collins. "To see her laying there in the hospital bed, face bloody, clothes bloody, it was just very traumatic."
Five days after the accident Eukheria has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home. Bottles of different medications help ease the pain of multiple broken bones and a badly split eye.
"I can feel the pain that she goes through," says grandmother Gloria Johnson, who is helping care for Eukheria.
The family is sharing their story in the hopes of deterring other drunk drivers. Because of the accident Eukheria will miss a long list of events and ceremonies she worked toward over the past year, including homecoming week at Bishop State College where she was voted Miss Bishop State.
"I'm supposed to emcee the black history program, play my sax in the black history program," she says. "I was in charge over the whole talent show, getting the whole thing together."
Her family members count their blessings that Eukheria's life was spared in the accident, but they have a desperate message for anyone on the roads.
"If you're going to drink, don't drive," says her mother.
"I know it's because of irresponsibility," says her grandfather Howard Johnson of the driver who hit Eukheria. "I pity them for not thinking twice."
Eukheria will see a physical therapist twice a week for the foreseeable future. She also plans to meet with a cosmetic surgeon to fix her right eye.
