Alyssa Lewis crashes with regrets

by Casey Eldred

Alyssa Lewis sat frozen in the passenger seat. Snow quickly began to pile up on the windshield of her best friend Kelli Flaherty’s Chevy Cruz.  

They had just collided with the guardrail on the side of Route 202. 

(Photo: Alyssa Lewis)

“Looking ahead you could see this hill cars were coming down,” Lewis said. “And then all we could see was this gold Toyota sedan spinning onto our side of the road. We tried to get out of the way, but there was nowhere for us to go but into the guardrail.”  

They sat in shock until a bystander warned them that another car could crash into them at any moment.  

“I took the reins calling 911 because Kelli was too overwhelmed, but I couldn’t even give them a location for the accident,” Lewis said. “I’m not from around here so I didn’t know the roads and the snow was so bad I couldn’t see any signs.”  

Lewis’ legs shook as she climbed over the center console and out the driver’s side door. The passenger door had been too damaged to open.  

“The other driver tried to convince us not to call the police at all. It wasn’t his car, so he wanted us to follow him somewhere,” she said.  

Lewis and Flaherty knew better than to follow the man.  

“Even two years later, nothing is resolved insurance-wise, and we don’t even know the man’s name. We were rushed into the ambulance for evaluation and didn’t say much after he asked us to follow him,” Lewis explained.  

The car was totaled. Flaherty suffered severe whiplash that she still gets treatment for today. Lewis walked away with no injuries, but the accident still stuck with her.  

She was the reason they were on the road that day.  

“If it wasn’t for my appointment at the hospital, we wouldn’t have been going anywhere. We would’ve been home and off the road,” Lewis said. “I felt so guilty about that and I still do.”