Donna Gibson and her three girls are doing OK.Not great, just OK.
Gibson, pregnant with twin girls, and her
3-year-old daughter, Grace, were involved in a three-car collision in July on N.C. 150 in
the Mill Bridge community.
Gibson spent two days in the hospital; Grace, 5
1/2 weeks.
Another driver, Janice Marie Campbell, 20, of
Lincoln County, died at Carolinas Medical Center as a result of the accident.
There was nothing I could have done
differently to change the situation, Gibson said.
But maybe the driver of the third vehicle involved
could have.
Brett Gascoigne, 23, 819 Marilyn Court, Concord,
has been charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle, a Class 1 misdemeanor which can carry
jail time.
If convicted, Gascoignes sentence will be
based on any record he has and the circumstances of the accident.
Gibson lead the line of three cars down N.C. 150
that Friday afternoon. She was delivering flowers in her minivan.
Gascoigne followed in his orange Asplundh
tree-trimming truck. And Campbell was behind both of them in her 1989 Nissan.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper W.D.Greene said
Campbell attempted to pass the other two vehicles, a legal maneuver since it was a passing
lane.
At the same time, Gascoigne moved to pass Gibson,
without checking his sideview mirror, Greene said.
The truck and the Nissan collided, swerved across
the road and pushed Gibson down the embankment of Kerr Creek bridge.
Campbells car landed on its roof in the
roadway, and she died later. Gascoignes truck flipped over the bridge railing and
landed upright in the creek. He suffered minor cuts and bruises.
A tree at the bank of the creek split the front
Gibsons van.
Investigators told Gibson later that if the van
had landed an inch different either way, she or her daughter would not be
alive.
The power of prayer does a lot, Gibson
said. The accident has given the Gibson family a new perspective on life.
The family was on the prayer lists of more than
eight churches. From here to California to Canada, Gibson said people showed
their concern for her family.
But Gibson says no amount of plastic surgery can
repair what God made. She and her daughter will always have the scars to remind them of
the accident that could have taken their lives just as easily as it took Campbells.
The four of us have something to do
here, Gibson said. It just wasnt our time.
My daughter and I have a saying,
Gibson said We went airborne and God took over.