Photo by: Special to NBC2 (WBBH-TV)
Less than 24 hours after being hit by a car, a 12-year-old Cape Coral boy spoke exclusively to ABC7 about the accident. James Cole, a Gulf Middle School student, was riding his bike home when an out-of-control driver hit him and continued going.
James’ family said the driver was having a medical emergency, and it’s a miracle their boy is alive.
“We were sitting and waiting for him to get home and got the call no parent ever wants to get. I’m so-and-so and your kid’s been hit by a car,” David Cole recalled. “As fast as we could jump in the car and off we went.”
The crash was just about a mile away from James’ home. It’s a route he takes regularly according to his family.
“We’ve preached to him take back roads, take back roads, take back roads but there’s that one little stretch of Chiquita he has to go on. He doesn’t have any choice,” Cole said. “He always stays on the sidewalk, and to even fathom that could happen is crazy. You do everything you can to protect them, and we do all the right things, and this still happens… It’s scary to even think of the what-ifs involved in this. You teach your kid to do everything right, stay on sidewalks, don’t just cross streets, he’s doing everything right when this woman comes out of nowhere and still plows him.”
James is alive, and okay for the most part. He has a broken ankle, wrist and elbow. He also dislocated his shoulder.
“That’s all you could ask for. all things considered, he shouldn’t be here right now,” David said.
“Really, I’m just thankful to be alive,” the 12-year-old said. “All I remember is the car coming from behind, and then I went blank. I wake up and there’s a bunch of people around me.”
“Witnesses said he was 20 feet in the air, and I would estimate he was flown close to 100 feet. He was thrown a significant distance,” David said, James’ father. “He landed in a grass ditch. Had he landed on the driveway, had he landed on the sidewalk, had he landed on the street, had she continued and run him over – the what ifs will drive you nuts… The witnesses said she was flying. They told me 80-90-100 mph. I don’t think that would be accurate, I would say judging by the damage to his bike and his backpack, his Crocs were ripped in half, I would say 50-60 mph. She didn’t tap him, she hit him.”
Good Samaritans surrounded James immediately. One man even held James’ head in his hands until paramedics took him to the hospital.
“All they said was calm down, you’re okay, and I said okay and relaxed,” James remembered. “It was all blurry still and didn’t know where I was.”
“They are true guardian angels, thank you,” David said.
“It was just a blessing – I could never ask for anything better,” James said. “Thank you to everyone who helped me.”
“They are true guardian angels,” David added. “They’re saints! The first person who reached him told us they thought he was dead because he was unconscious. They thought he was dead, and the next person came up and shook him up, that’s when he woke up and said find my backpack, which they luckily found. His cell phone was in there. He was coherent enough to say call my dad, call my dad.”
James’ bike is destroyed. The frame is broken and bent. The seat is gone, and the grips are too. It was a special Christmas gift for the middle school student. His family said it was the only thing he asked for. David Cole said James has been riding it out front with his friends for the past six months trying to learn wheelies.
Cape Coral Police told James’ family the driver had a medical emergency behind the wheel.
After hitting James, she hit several mailboxes and a speed limit sign before crossing the median and going airborne over some hedges. Ultimately, the woman and her car ended up crashing into a backyard and a pool cage.
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Source: abc-7
