By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
In February, Samantha Sykes should be celebrating the first birthday of her son, Shawn Lee Sykes. Instead, she’ll remember the day her unborn baby boy died because of a drunken driver.
Nearly a year ago, Sykes was involved in a car accident. She was six months pregnant. Although her loss was painful and remains so today, it inspired her to make a difference.
Sykes, along with a host of volunteers, is starting a Rowan County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The group will meet at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Rowan Public Library’s Stanback Room.
Last Feb. 9, Sykes was heading back from Statesville in a car with her brother, Chad Carey, and his wife, Virginia Carey.
“Gin was driving and Chad was in the passenger seat,” the 25-year-old Sykes said.
Sykes was in the back seat. The accident happened quickly. She recalled the driver in the oncoming car swerving into their lane of travel. The other car hit the car she was in head-on, she said.
Her sister-in-law tried to swerve, but it was too late. “The car flipped three times. I saw Gin upside down,” Sykes said.
Chad and Virginia were wearing seat belts, but Sykes was not. She said it made her uncomfortable to put the belt across her swollen belly.
Sykes suffered broken bones and cuts to her leg and pelvis.
“I almost lost my leg,” she said.
When Sykes saw the bones sticking out of her leg, she panicked. Her sister-in-law awoke from the accident and tried to calm Sykes.
Chad Carey carried his sister out of the car. He had a fractured hip, but didn’t know it at the time.
Sykes has since had a knee replacement and suffers from short-term memory loss. Her right eye bears a scar left by multiple stitches.
In addition to physical scars, there are the emotional ones that Sykes isn’t sure will ever heal.
“I’m paranoid to sit in the back seat of a car,” she said.
She’s even more aware of her fear now that she is expecting again. Sykes is currently 10 weeks pregnant.
Sykes doesn’t know if she’s having a boy or girl. She just wants a “healthy baby.”
She keeps herself busy, which she said helps her cope with the loss of her unborn son.
“The only thing that keeps my mind occupied is working on MADD,” she said.
Sykes sees the MADD chapter as a way to not only help herself heal, but to help others as well.
“This is my life. This is my future,” she said.
Sykes, who faces at least one more surgery on her leg, hopes that more people will volunteer or at least support the efforts of current volunteers. She is asking for people to band together to “get drunk drivers off the road.”
She feels a sense of satisfaction when law enforcement officers stop an impaired driver. For Sykes, it means one less impaired driver on the road.
For more information on the MADD chapter, contact Sykes at 704-637-2613 or myspace.com/blackstar1982.
Contact Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253 or spotts@salisburypost.com.