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Told She Would Never Walk Again After Wreck, Tina Vickery Stands Tall

In seconds, Tina Vickery went from a transportation supervisor responsible for transporting hundreds of North Escambia students by bus everyday, to a world where doctors told her that she would probably never walk again.

It was the morning of February 26, 2008, at about 8:00.  She had just left Ernest Ward Middle School, and was southbound in a school district car on Highway 97 near Dixie Feed in Molino.

“I  remember it. I remember everything,” Tina said Wednesday morning at at a bus driver Thanksgiving lunch in Molino. “It happened so fast. It happened so fast. There was nothing I could do.”

Elisha J Tyler, 50, of Molino lost control of her van when she hit standing water in the roadway and spun into Tina’s lane. “My most vivid memory is seeing her head toward me. I just hit her. There was nothing I could do.”

It was a bad wreck. A very bad wreck. Elisha’s van lay on its side, nearly folded in half. Tina was in her crumpled school district car, watching everything around her as emergency vehicles arrived. She saw, and remembers everything until the ambulance workers wheeled her into the emergency room where she was given strong pain medication. The next thing she remembers is waking up as nurses were removing her breathing tube. The first thing she asked was if the other driver survived.

After weeks in the hospital, Tina transferred to in-patient rehab. It was three and a half months before she could place any weight on her legs. Even then, doctors told her that her chances of walking were very slim.

“They told me I would probably never walk again,” Tina said. “But here I am walking again. What a blessing!”

Wednesday morning, she stood before her employees, the 35 bus drivers that transport students to the Escambia County Schools from Molino to Century to Walnut Hill. It was a Thanksgiving lunch, and Tina was thankful to be standing there.

“This has probably been one of the worst years of my life,” she told her employees. “But you were there for me. I thank God for each one of you. I hope He blesses each one of you.”

It was a proud moment for Vickery to be able to stand  before her drivers, her friends.

“I had such wonderful support from my coworkers, my family and my friends,” she said of the months after the accident. “It’s not like we are coworkers. We are like a family.”

The  bus drivers visited Vickery often in rehab. They cooked for her family. They took care of her personal business and errands. “It’s like we are family,” she said. “When one had a problem, everyone steps in, during the good times and the bad.”

Back on May 15, the drivers pulled a little surprise on their boss. Barbara Hollingsworth, one of the drivers, arranged for the drivers to use a handicap equipped bus to sneak Tina out of rehab. Since Tina was in a wheelchair, they even put people in two other wheelchairs in the back of the bus so that she would not be alone. They took her to Barnhill’s for lunch. It was the first time since the day of the accident that Tina had walked on her feet on the ground.

” I thank God for letting her come back because she is such a blessing to all of us and a great superior,” Hollingsworth said.

Tina is back at work now as the north end route supervisor for the Escambia County Schools Transportation Department for three half days per week. She is still attending physical therapy each week.

She looks at life a bit differently now, nine months after the accident.

“I give thanks to God each day,” she said. “The little things are not as important anymore when you look at the big picture.”

Even in her lowest moment, she continued to thank God. “I realized during those months of rehab that there were people that were there that were so much worse off than me. I was so thankful for all that God has done for me.”

To see a photo gallery from the Thanksgiving lunch, the trip to Barnhills and more stages of Tina’s recovery, click here.

To see a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery from the accident scene in February, click here.

Pictured top: Tina Vickery’s accident on Highway 97 on February 26, 2008. Pictured above: Tina Vickery on Wednesday with bus driver Marie McPhillips. Pictured below: North Escambia bus drivers at a Thanksgiving lunch on Wednesday. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.