TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — A woman says she was trapped under a semitrailer and dragged a couple hundred feet along Interstate 35 near Temple last Thursday, and now her family is asking for the community's help to find the driver responsible.
Kerragan Simien was in the left lane of I-35 when she says the back of a semitrailer hooked onto her Kia Soul and dragged her SUV. She then spun out into the middle of the interstate with all her airbags deployed until another semi driver stopped and helped get her to the emergency lane safely.
Simien told me she described being in the left lane with only about 2 feet of shoulder when the truck began moving into her lane.
"He's speeding past me, trying to get into the left lane, and by the time he gets into the left lane, I try to hit my brakes, but I didn't stop in time, so I got caught on his left end of the trailer," Simien said.
She says the truck dragged her for about 200 feet before her car detached.
"For about 200 ft, then my car eventually detached, and after it detached, that's when I was most scared because Kia Souls have high rollover risks. I was scared I was gonna flip, but thankfully I didn't, I more so just spun," Simien said.
She says she had no time to react other than to brake and hold on.
"I didn't really have any thinking time besides to slam the brakes. By the time I was already in the accident, when I was holding on, that's all I could think to do was hold on and just, just squeeze my eyes and just hope," Simien said.
Simien, who walked away with minor injuries, says she feels fortunate to be alive.
"What is the percentage of people that actually survived an 18 wheeler car accident? And I was in a Kia Soul, so I feel like I'm very blessed to be here, but it's very traumatic, but then again, I feel like it's a blessing," Simien said.
She says the crash has left lasting effects.
"The way I explain it is exactly like a movie, it's traumatic, I sometimes lose sleep, my head bothers me, I get nauseous sometimes," Simien said.
Simien's grandmother, Lisa Hunt, says she wants the semi driver held responsible but needs the community's help because there were no cameras where the crash happened.
"My nerves were hot. We just lost my only daughter 5 months ago, and so to get that phone call on top of that, I was like, I cannot do this again," Hunt said.
"What when I talked to the DPS officer, I was trying to see is there any video cameras out there that we could pull, any businesses that might have some videotape, and he said, unfortunately she was in no man's land, like right on the cusp of 3 counties, and I'm not familiar with that area, but wherever she was, it took them a while just to find her," Hunt said.
Hunt says she is frustrated the driver did not stop to check on her granddaughter.
"He never got out of the cab, to check on her or anything, and then he pulled off. So, that's what I'm frustrated about. It's because you left her for dead in the middle of the interstate. You didn't even check on her," Hunt said.
The family says they still do not know who was driving the truck.
"We're trying to figure out who this guy who was driving was, because not only we don't know, he couldn't have had his CDL, he could have been on drugs, he could have been drunk, you never know," Simien said.
If you have any pictures or videos you think would be able to help the family, you can contact lisa.hunt.texas@gmail.com.
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