Slammed By An 18-Wheeler… A Young Athlete Fights Back: "I'm healed"
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It's been a long road for Bailey Buchanan since that night on Sept. 26, 2014, when her life changed forever.
"We'd stopped and gotten some food at Braum's. We were happy," Bailey, now 19, said.
They certainly were.
The Lady Lions were the beloved softball team, riding high as the jewel of North Central Texas College in Gainesville, who were heading back on I-35 after a scrimmage in Oklahoma.
"We were enjoying the moment, I guess…we were just goofing off," Bailey remembers about the good part of that night.
Their leader, Coach Van Hedrick, was driving the team bus.
Traveling the opposite direction on the interstate was a massive 18-wheeler, driven by Russell Staley of Saginaw.
Lulled by laughter in the bus, Bailey dozed off, not a care in the world, just a normal, lucky teenager with a strong throwing arm.
Then the unthinkable …
Bailey awoke in a fetal position.
She took in the smell of burning rubber.
The darkness of night quickly began to light up from the glare of arriving ambulances and police cars. Flashlights illuminated the ground.
"I was just in shock. I started losing feeling in my legs. I started thinking, 'Oh my gosh Bailey, you have to keep yourself awake,'" Bailey said.
For such a winning team, both in character and on the scoreboard, the Lady Lions had suddenly suffered a big loss.
The 18-wheeler had veered into the path of their bus, trapping 15 young women and their coach in a mangle of metal.
"I was worried about the other girls. But I was trying to keep myself awake. I was trying to move my toes and my fingers. I couldn't move my toes, so I concentrated on moving my fingers," Bailey said.
What she didn't know then was that three of her teammates already lay dead: Meagan Richardson, 19, Katelynn Woodlee, 18, and Jaiden Pelton, 20. Another, 20-year-old Brooke Deckard, would die a short time later.
Her body was broken and bruised. A snapped pelvis almost certainly would cripple her.
Bailey still doesn't know who pulled her out of the bus.
"I was laying on a hill …I was just kind of in tall grass," she said.
Someone dialed her family in the Dallas area and put the phone to Bailey's mouth.
"I had to tell my dad something was wrong …that's when I thought, 'Oh my gosh, something is really wrong, we just got hit by an 18-wheeler,'" she said.
Her father's comforting words, as only a parent can deliver: "It's okay, baby …we're on our way."
Nearly a year later – after a half-dozen surgeries, hours of rehab and a healthy dose of guts, heart, determination and family support – Bailey is okay…
Not perfect, but okay.
"I do have days. They are not as often anymore. But I do have days where I just sit there and ponder – why? Why am I still here? And why are they gone," Bailey said, allowing a glimpse of emotion before she caught herself, like an ace beating a fastball.
Plates and screws have reassembled her pelvis. Braces have once again straightened her body. She can walk again; put on her clothes by herself again.
But doctors say she will never be rid of all her pain.
Still, they say, she should be able to return to playing ball …if she's wills her weakened muscles to do so.
"I'm going to try just to prove to myself that I can do it. To prove how far I can overcome something and get back to normal," Bailey said.
The thought of returning to the active roster of the Lady Lions, the team she never left, makes her smile.
"I've played it ever since I was a little kid, 4 or 5 years old. The feeling of stepping on the red dirt, it has a smell to it. The red dirt just has a smell like where the lines are chalked," Bailey said.
Recently, for the first time since the accident, she put on a glove, stepped out onto a baseball diamond, and played catch with her older sister, Brittany.
"You can just sit out there and you just throw it. You can feel the leather in your hand…the ball hitting the leather. It's a feeling like no other …
"A feeling that you're part of something bigger than yourself," she said.
And what about Russell Staley, the truck driver now charged with four counts of first-degree manslaughter in the accident that has caused her so much pain and grief?
"I use to be so very mad …I got rid of that real quick and moved on," Bailey said, adding: "I'm not mad at him. I'm not out for vengeance …I'm healing."
And then Bailey corrected herself slightly, like a pitcher changing up her swing, and delivered a strike: "I'm healed."
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If you want to reach CBS 11′s Senior Investigative Producer Jack Douglas Jr., you can email him at jdouglas@cbs.com
