By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed August 24, 2012
B98.5 morning host Kelly Stevens' car was hit by a wrong-way driver Friday morning, but he survived.
The driver, 22-year-old Carly Royball died, when her vehicle hit his. (Details about why she was driving the wrong way is still being investigated.)
"I was in the left lane, then all of a sudden I looked up and there was headlights, it was a wrong-way driver. I heard the person who hit me didn't make it," Stevens said when he called into the radio station from the hospital.
Stevens' co-host Vikki Locke wrote on a blog that he broke his left arm and leg and is being treated at Grady Hospital. He will have additional surgery next week. A Channel 2 Action News report said Stevens was fortunate to survive despite not wearing a seat belt. When the authorities found him, he had been knocked into the backseat.
UPDATE on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012, 3:41 p.m.: his girlfriend Katie Buser said Kelly had surgery on his left leg yesterday, where doctors put a plate and a rod in. He also shattered his left elbow but it’s too swollen right now so they will postpone surgery until early next week. She said he is going to be moved from ICU to a regular room soon.
According to the WSB-TV story, "Officials said more than two dozen people have died in wrong way crashes since 2004 in Georgia, including Frampere Ingle who was drinking before she caused a wrong way crash on Ga. 400 in Buckhead last week."
Jessica Forkel, the producer, said in an interview that she visited him today and he's in high spirits. "I was shocked," she said. "A million questions run through your mind… Vikki and I pulled together and lived the experience with our listeners."
And here's the AJC story. Plus, a Buzz item. (So we covered this quite thoroughly, eh?)
Last year, Jeremy "Fat Kid" Powell, a producer for the Dave FM morning show, got hit by then host Jimmy Baron's vehicle as a pedestrian and broke an ankle and tailbone. He has now recovered. "My ankle is still sore," he said in an interview this evening. "And that will probably come and go the rest of my life. I can't run either, not that I did much before."
Powell said he takes the same route as Stevens at about the same time at 4 a.m. but was running 10 minutes late. “I got on 400 South and they had it blocked. I had to go around on Roswell Road. I heard it was a wrong-way driver and thought, ‘That could have been me!’ When I found out it was Kelly Stevens, it was like, ‘Holy crap!’ It hit really close to home.”
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