Girl, 9, nearly dies (loses leg, breaks neck) saving sister from oncoming truck

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Girl, 9, loses her leg saving sister from oncoming truck

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42228006/ns/today-today_people/

By Seamus McGraw
TODAY.com contributor



Anaiah Taylor suffered a broken neck, internal injuries and two broken legs saving her little sister’s life; one leg could not be saved.

They were halfway across the road, holding hands as they always did on their way to meet the school bus, when 9-year-old Anaiah Tucker and her 5-year-old sister, Camry, saw the truck bearing down on them. There wasn’t time for both of them to escape. And so, in an act of sisterly love and selfless courage, Anaiah pushed her little sister to safety and took the full impact herself.

She had just one thought, she said Wednesday; her little sister “was too young to be hit like this, and if she got hit she wouldn’t hardly be alive. She would be probably gone forever.”

Yet that brave big sister, who lost a leg and nearly her life that day, does not believe that she is a hero. “I feel like one, but I really didn’t deserve to be one,” Anaiah told Ann Curry on TODAY. “I love her so much.”

“It happened so fast, and when it happened I thought my world was just going to ... crash,” the girls’ mother, Andrea Taylor, told Curry in a live interview from Madison, Ga.

[villager]

1. Okay, well now this father is officially weepy today

Thanks for posting

[eowyn_of_rohan]

2. What a beautiful love

...:cry: May her life be blessed

[hedgehog]

3. Where's the rest of the story - like was the truck speeding?

She's a real hero, but that truck didn't drive itself, and their mother didn't let those girls walk out in front of an oncoming truck.

[madmom]

4. My first thought, after praise for the girls, was the vehicle that

hit her was either awfully big or going awfully fast. They don't say, I am wondering how that much damage could be done in what I am assuming is a residential neighborhood.Are there speed limits, school zone signs? Just really confusing too me.

[hedgehog]

5. Here's some info :

At 7 a.m. Anaiah and Camry were both struck by a pickup truck just outside their North Main Street home as they were running to cross the street to catch a school bus. Georgia State Patrol Senior Trooper Brad Walker said a 1987 GMC pickup truck driven by Terry Walker, 47, Madison, struck the two girls. Trooper Walker says there were no contributing factors on the driver’s part in the accident and that the driver would face no charges.

According to Davis, Anaiah was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that may have obscured her vision. The truck was traveling north on North Main Street in wet conditions.




http://www.morgancountycitizen.com/?q=node/16646


On edit - I took a look at the street on Google earth - it's a two lane road, arrow straight, that runs down between a line of trees. I'm guessing the speed limit to be any where from 30MPH to 55MPH.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Another photo:

The link is just a reprint of the MSNBC story, but here it is for anyone who wants it: http://www.rolandsmartin.com/blog/index.php/2011/03/23/girl-9-nearly-dies-saving-sister-from-oncoming-truck-video/

[hedgehog]

7. Off-topic - but the girl's name is Rucker, not Tucker.

Nice fact checking, NBC!