A 9-year-old girl who survived a hit-and-run crash in Wilton Manors that killed her little sister spent her first night at home Wednesday in more than a month.
Draya Fleming was one of the six kids who were struck by a hit-and-run driver back in December in Wilton Manors.
Draya, who has been in the hospital recovering, is now in a wheelchair with a brace around her leg. She has a long road ahead, but she still found the strength to give a smile.
“Her strength is giving me strength,” said Tyricka Williams, Draya’s mom. “Because if she wouldn’t have made it, I wouldn’t have made it.”
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Two of the kids who were struck, including Draya’s younger sister Andrea, died.
"I had to tell her, your sister, she's with God," Williams said. "She’s okay. If you want to speak to her, you can. Speak out loud. She’s going to hear you."
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The suspected driver was later arrested. Detectives said he tried to go around a bus and slammed into the children.
“You hit the kids and you just left the scene,” Williams said. “You left them there like they were dogs.”
For Draya, it was too painful to listen to her mother talk about the crash. She put her hands over her ears to block out the sound.
Draya had to be placed in a medically induced coma for about a week, her mom said.
While she’s home now, the physical and emotional recovery is far from over.
“We have to go to therapy. We have to get her leg straight,” Williams said.
Williams said her daughter has rods in her leg, short-term memory loss and a brain injury, but she’s grateful her daughter is finally home.
“It’s a celebration and it’s a sad moment,” Williams said. “Because you get to have your daughter back, but when you see her, you don’t see the other, so it’s a sad moment for me.”
