BY KYLE MARTIN
Hernando Today

SPRING HILL - Sandra Hamilton believes a drinking straw saved her from a wreck.

On Friday morning, Hamilton stopped for a drink at the McDonald’s on Spring Hill Drive, near the Mariner Boulevard intersection.

She fiddled with the straw for about 10 seconds, then headed west on Spring Hill Drive. Less than a minute later she was stomping on the brakes of her van when she saw a red car zip through the stop sign at Linden Drive.

The car clipped the front of the Dodge Durango pickup in front of her, then crossed in front of eastbound traffic and into a house on the opposite corner of Linden Drive.

“She was probably going 30 mph,” Hamilton said. “She never hit the brakes.”

The front end of the car crumpled with the collision, and cracked the wall of the house, which is up for sale. A listing agent said the home, which has about $10,000 in damage, has been vacant for about a year.

Deputy Michael Glatfelter confirmed Hamilton’s narrative.

The driver of the red car, 45-year-old Denise Wentz, was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital where she is listed in critical condition. The pickup’s driver, Brian Fleury, 21, was taken to Oak Hill Hospital, but Hamilton said he was walking around right after the accident. 

Hamilton, who was visibly shaken, marveled at her luck. “If I had just been going a little faster that would have been me,” she said, motioning to the truck.

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