TBO.com > News > News blog Reports
- Time for a patriotic song.
- Crist Engaged To Rome
- Supremes: Crist Erred On Gambling Pact
- Polk Schools Dealing With High Diesel Costs
- Take trolley, streetcar to fireworks
- Isn’t it Fun to Fly?
- Hail, Gusty Winds, Possible Tornado Results From Afternoon Storms
- Portable High Definition Televisions
- Andy Martin—Remember Him?—Gets His Moment In The Sun
- There’s One Behind Every Tree …
- Tornado Warning Up For Sebring Area
- More Storms Heading Toward North Hillsborough, Southeast Pasco
- Storms Forming Near I-75
- Another Afternoon Of Active Thunderstorms
- Road work causing delays near Clearwater roundabout
Eric Rannebarger, also known as morning radio personality Eric Michaels on Lakeland’s 98.3 FM, is recovering in his den today in Davenport. He’s sore, bruised and cut, but says he’s healing.
“I’m walking, and I’m living and breathing, so it’s a good day,” Rannebarger said. Phone calls and visitors came in a steady stream. Friends and co-workers sent e-mail, too, as they found out he had been banged up in Wednesday’s I-4 pileup.
Rannebarger’s show starts at 6 a.m.; he was headed west toward the radio station when his 2000 Mazda Protégé slid into the mess of cars and tractor-trailers. He described it as hitting a “wall of dirty, white, gray fog.”
After he climbed out of his car, he worried he was having a heart attack. His chest hurt, he was nauseated and he had pain on his left side. A tractor-trailer driver helped him into his cab and gave him a bottle of water before an ambulance took him away about three hours later, Rannebarger said.
Today he is still struggling to make sense of what happened. He wants more details, but when he watches and reads news reports, he gets emotional.
“It takes me back there,” he said. Rannebarger said he’ll look for a counselor to help him deal with the anxiety.
Eric, so glad to hear you are on the mend and returning to routine we knew before that terrible day. I want to thank you for your kind words and to let you know I have received much unexpected attention for it. I will try and contact you personnaly, at the station, in the next day or so. I work nights so the timing is a bit off.
Best wishes, John “JR” Reddington
Get well soon & hurry back to work!
"Great to see YOU” now has a whole new meaning!!! Get well soon! Max is counting on you. LOL 
Hurry back to work....we miss you!!
Advertisement
Posted by ShaRhonda Tory, Lakeland, Fl. on 01/29 at 04:37 PM
Glad you made back to work, I missed you Guy. Get well SOON.