Joshua's Story

JOSHUA OWEN MONTGOMERY

1988 – 1991

Joshua was born on March 30, 1988. Of course, he was my little angel. Even though my marriage to his father was not good, he was one of the few bright spots in our lives. He took after his father because he loved music so much, like his father did, and still does.

Josh’s father and I separated around his first birthday, simply due to the fact that we were too young to be married. As most know, it is difficult to be a single parent. You always feel guilty and pulled in every direction – never feeling like you are doing well at anything. Despite all of the confusion, Josh and I were very close and he was a momma’s boy.

I finally entered the dating scene, and on March 24, 1991, Joshua, my then boyfriend and I were going to go to the circus to celebrate Josh’s 3^rd birthday. We met at my boyfriend’s place of business and decided to ride in one vehicle, my boyfriend’s truck, because Josh loved trucks. We have a wonderful time at the circus, which is a blessing since it was Josh’s last day of life.

When we returned to pick up the car I was driving, which was my mother’s, we were doing normal things such as transferring the toddler seat and getting all of my other belongings back into my car. When Josh and I were finally ready to go home, I put him in his toddler seat and secured the seat belt. I went to the driver side to get in, still talking with my boyfriend. I stopped and was leaning on the driver’s side door, which was open to finish whatever we were discussing at the time. All of a sudden, I began to feel the car moving backwards (we were on a light incline). Instinct told me to just hold onto the door and the car would stop, but this car was a large, heavy car. The car started was gaining speed, and I kept trying to stop it, screaming and panicking. I guess it must have scared Joshua because somehow he wiggled free from his car seat and crawled over to the driver’s side to get to me. Things happened so fast, and all I could think of was to stop the car. Suddenly, Josh fell out of the car, and at the same time, the car door finally knocked me down and the car ran over both of us. Unfortunately, the wheels only ran over my legs, but ran over Joshua’s abdomen.

When I got up, I rushed over to pick Josh up, and he was conscious and was not bleeding. For a split second, I was relieved. He was talking to me, asking for a drink of water. Then, his eyes started glazing over and he looked to be disoriented. I yelled for my boyfriend to call 911, and they immediately arrived. Joshua was still awake when the paramedics arrived, but they could tell he was very injured. I rode in the ambulance, hysterical. They had to restrain me because I was out of control. Apparently, they lost Josh on the way to the hospital, but revived him, temporarily. I did not know this at the time. I cannot explain the helplessness I was feeling. When we finally got to the hospital, things became a blur, with doctors, nurses and pastors all fading in and out. Apparently, a major artery was damaged in Josh’s abdomen, and they simply could not save him no matter how fast the doctors at University of Kentucky worked. Joshua Montgomery died on March 24, 1991 due to severe blood loss. I never got to see him again. I couldn’t face him. I vaguely remember hearing our accident on the news while the hospital employees and police were trying to talk to me, but it was all like a dream - someone else’s nightmare.

As far as what caused the accident, we don’t know. The emergency brake was on, and the car was not running. However, I do know that the particular car I was driving had a mechanism to automatically disengage the emergency break when the driver would put the car into gear if the car was running. I contacted the car company and told them what happened. I did not threaten any lawsuit, I just simply wanted them to change this feature on their cars to keep this from happening again. I never received a response, no sympathy card, nothing. The maker of this car was Cadillac.

My life has been forever changed. I’m sure it is the same with Joshua’s father. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as involved as he probably should have been, so he feels a different type of torture than I do, but it’s all the same in the end. We lost our baby.

I never had any more children. I just live with this hell everyday. Life does have a way of going on, but I see the accident everyday in one way or another – whether through the news reports of other similar accidents, through dreams or just a flash of memory. Anyone who has been in the same situation will agree that you would do ANYTHING to trade places. Josh will never go to school, on a date, play football, play a guitar, go on a date or get married and have kids of his own. All because of a split second wrong choice on my part.

I have shared this story because we have to get better laws to protect our children. A vehicle is a very dangerous piece of equipment, and accidents happen so fast. When I see someone leaving their child in the car to even pump gas, I physically become ill and have to fight myself to not go over and shake the parent because people always think that it won’t happen to them…. Well, it does. He will always be my baby.