First Responders work to free Mt. Airy teen Adriana Woodall from the wreckage of an SUV on March 4. (Daniel Purcell/Now Habersham)
On February 16, 2018, Adriana Woodall turned 19 years old. As birthdays go, it was a time to celebrate another year and a future full of promise. But sixteen days later this Mt. Airy teen came dangerously close to not having a future.
Life turned upside down
It was late on the evening of Sunday, March 4. Woodall was driving behind her best friend on Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway. “We were going to stop by to see her boyfriend for a minute and then go to my house to eat,” Woodall recalls.
They never made it.
As she rounded a curve near Lick Log Lane, Woodall ran off the road. She tried to steer the SUV she was driving back into her lane. She lost control of the vehicle, it overturned, and hit a tree.
In those few frightening moments Woodall’s life literally turned upside down. “Honestly I don’t really know what all was going through my head as it happened,” she says. “Some cussing went through my head, but other than that I was just worried because I didn’t know how bad everything was going to end up.”
Fortunately, it turned out much better than it looked.
Adriana found herself surrounded by crushed metal, broken glass, mangled mirrors, and blown air bags. Folded steel trapped her inside of the vehicle. First Responders had to cut her out of the wreckage. They loaded her up in an ambulance and sent her to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.
The next day, Woodall took to social media to let people know she was okay and to say thanks to those who assisted her.
“Whether you called 911, talked to me until emergency services got there, cut me out of the car and got me into the ambulance, treated me at the hospital, or just got called out to the scene. Thank you,” the post states.
Circumstances, choices, and divine intervention
To this day Woodall remains grateful and still somewhat mystified. “I’ve played it over in my head at least a million times,” her post states. “I’ve talked through it with probably twenty different people, and yet I still can’t comprehend how I walked away from that crash with nothing worse than cut up hands and bad bruising.”
As she replays the crash in her head, Woodall tries to pinpoint what saved her.
She says she wasn’t supposed to be in that SUV the night of the wreck. Her car was giving her trouble so she borrowed her mom’s Lincoln Aviator. “I feel terrible for totaling my mom’s car,” says the teen, “but if I hadn’t had to drive it I may not even be here at all.”
She says her seatbelt likely kept her from being ejected through the SUV’s shattered windshield.
This accident has just solidified what I’ve been wanting to do with my life, go to school to become a paramedic.
Circumstances. Good choices. Both likely did impact the outcome for Woodall, but she says that’s not all. She has no doubt God was with her the night of the wreck and, perhaps, someone else too. “I’ve always felt like my great-grandma was some sort of guardian angel over me,” she adds.
Grateful and determined
Woodall is grateful for all of the help and support she’s received since the wreck. She’s now determined to pursue a career that will allow her to help others.
“This accident has just solidified what I’ve been wanting to do with my life, go to school to become a paramedic,” she tells Now Habersham. “Now I know that’s what I want.”
As she moves forward, Woodall takes another glance back. “…Like my mom told my little brother last night, if you ever have any second thoughts about wearing your seatbelt just look back at my crash and how differently it could have gone. I definitely had an angel watching over me this weekend.”
Pictures of the Woodall’s wrecked SUV in the tow yard show the extent of the damage. (Facebook)
