Struck Head-On at 50 MPH—No Injuries in Sight

April 10, 2021 promised to be an exciting evening of sprint car racing at the I-30 speedway in Little Rock, Arkansas. Track photographer Jennifer Leath. “There’s just something about the smell of race, fuel and that vibration that just, it goes through everything. You can feel it in your chest. They are incredibly fast and incredibly easy to flip, so the wrecks with them are pretty crazy.” That night Jennifer took her usual spot in the infield snapping shots of the cars whipping around the turn in what’s known as the “wing down” position.  There was nothing between her and the cars that could reach up to 100 miles per hour. Jennifer says, “The car would lean and you could get a picture almost of the complete side of the car. And it was just a cool picture. I had stood in that spot a thousand times. Never had I even been remotely nervous that there was gonna be a problem.”

That all changed in a split second. Two cars coming out of a turn collided sending one into the wall.  With the steering damaged on that car, the driver couldn’t control the 1400-pound vehicle as it headed towards Jennifer at 50 miles per hour. She recalls, “The car was swinging just crazy back and forth. And I tried to run to the right and then to the left. And when I realized he was still coming at me, he's not turning. The last thing I remember is a really hard thump.”

Jennifer’s husband tommy was in the pit area when he heard his name paged over the loudspeaker. He raced to the infield. “That was kind of scary. And I knew then something was bad. Praying it wasn't her, but it was.” By the time Tommy arrived, EMTs were on the scene. As a former police officer, Tommy braced himself for the worst. He says, “It was kind of a shock thing, you know, when I went through training as far as in law enforcement and things like that they don't train you for your own people.”

Amazingly, Jennifer was still conscious. She recalls, “When I opened my eyes, I was actually face down.  My head, this side of my head was actually up against the rear tire of the car. I thought it broke my leg because nothing else is gonna hurt this bad.” EMTs rushed Jennifer to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, about 15 minutes away. Jennifer says, “I remember in my mind, in the ambulance, I kept repeating Isaiah 41:10. It says, ‘Don't be afraid. Do not fear’.” In the ER, Jennifer’s doctor ordered a CAT scan and x-rays, expecting to find broken bones and internal bleeding. By then Tommy was on the phone asking family and friends to pray. He says, “The praying didn't stop. I don’t think it stopped through the whole process.”

Then, while getting her CAT scan, Jennifer says she felt an overwhelming peace. “If you could physically feel peace, I mean like nothing, there was nothing that could happen. The whole world could have blown up at that point and it would've been okay. And I just think that was as close to God saying, ‘It's okay. You are okay’.” And she was. Other than the bruising caused by the impact, Jennifer had no broken bones and no internal injuries. She says her doctor was perplexed. Jennifer recalls, “He said, ‘I can't explain why your injuries are not worse’. And I told him, ‘I could’. I said, ‘There is no physical way he could have turned that car the way he did. And the only way that could have happened is if God turned that car’.”   

The next day, Jennifer was released. Tommy says, “Getting to take her home was the, that was awesome. That was the best part of this whole thing.” And Jennifer believes it was a miracle. “I can't even begin to imagine the list of what potentially could have happened. It could have broken my legs, my pelvis, my hips, broken my neck, skull fracture, anything like that. If God had not turned that car there, there's no doubt in my mind I would either not be here at all or I would have been months in recovery.” The next race Jennifer was back at the track and taking pictures from the infield.  She and Tommy agree there’s no better place to be than in God’s loving care. Tommy says, “There are miracles out there. There’s power in prayer. I feel that more now than I ever have.” Jennifer believes, “I don't think a lot of the time we realize that there is so much going on that we can't see and how many times He stands in that gap. Don't ever let the world make you so hard that when you hear a testimony from someone that you refuse to let it touch you.”