Published on Friday, October 28, 2005
in the Tallahassee Democrat
Truck sought by authorities after I-10 crash
Woman paralyzed in wreck caused by fallen lumber
Amber Pitman Isaacs, a Florida Highway Patrol dispatcher, usually sent help to people in car wrecks across the Big Bend.
Now, she's the victim of one.
Isaacs, of Tallahassee, was permanently paralyzed from the chest down last week when a car she was riding in struck some lumber that fell from a truck on Interstate 10, causing the car to overturn and strike a tree.
Isaacs, 23, now is in intensive care at the Shepherd Center for Spinal Cord Injury in Atlanta, where she's already undergone two surgeries. She faces a lifetime of rehabilitation.
In the meantime, her colleagues are trying to track down the truck that dropped the wooden posts. Troopers who have looked at them can't find any identifying marks.
Isaacs and her husband, Mark, were traveling back to Tallahassee after visiting family in Jackson County when the wreck happened. He escaped injury.
Investigators are looking for anyone who was going eastbound on Interstate 10 in the area of the 152-mile marker near Sneads, Grand Ridge and Marianna, between 7 and 8 p.m. Oct. 18.
Specifically, they're looking for somebody who saw a truck lose part of its lumber load.
"I am devastated and overwhelmed that a 23-year-old woman could be left in this condition because of someone else's carelessness," said Mike Jenkins, Isaacs' supervisor at the FHP.
Jenkins has enlisted the Department of Transportation, to see whether the suspect truck passed through any of the interstate's weigh stations. Jenkins said he's listened to tapes of incoming calls about road debris from mile markers 139 to 159.
"But was it a big truck, a little truck, commercial truck?" Jenkins said. "We just don't know."
He said co-workers also have set up a trust fund for Isaacs at Wachovia Bank to assist in her recovery.
Donna Kent, Isaacs' mother, has been with her daughter in Atlanta. She explained that Isaacs' spinal cord was severed at the chest, and that she's been in severe pain.
"It's almost been uncontrollable," Kent said. "But she knows what happened. We're lucky there was no brain injury. She can move her arms and she's able to speak."
Between surgeries, Isaacs has been in a state of "disbelief and grief," Kent said. "It bothers her to know her legs are absolutely useless. It's been a massive shock to her."
The family will have to figure out how to pay for her care once she comes home and how to afford remodeling the home for a wheelchair.
"We're dealing with one problem after another," Kent said.
Published on Thursday, October 27, 2005
in the Tallahassee Democrat
FHP needs help learning crash cause
Amber Pitman, a 23-year-old Florida Highway Patrol dispatcher, usually sent help to people in bad car wrecks.
Now, she's the victim of one.
Pitman was in a car earlier this month when her husband, who was driving on Interstate 10, struck some lumber that had fallen off a truck. The car crashed and Pitman's spinal cord was damaged, paralyzing her from the chest down.
FHP now needs your help in determining whose truck it was; they can't identify the vehicle by the lumber it dropped. A trust fund also has been set up in Pitman's name.
For more on this story, see tomorrow's Tallahassee Democrat.
Published on Thursday, October 27, 2005
in the Jackson County Floridan
Dispatcher seriously injured
An area native who worked as a dispatcher for the Florida Highway Patrol has suffered serious injuries in a Jackson County traffic crash that occurred as the result of a truckload of logs falling from an unknown vehicle, according to FHP reports.
Holmes County native Amber Pitman Isaacs' spinal cord was severed and crushed and she is permanently paralyzed from the chest down as a result of the crash, according to her FHP supervisor, Mike Jenkins.
FHP authorities are hoping someone can lead them to the vehicle that the logs fell from, but are also trying to raise money to help their injured worker.
Isaacs and her new husband, Mark, were passing through Jackson County on their way back home in Leon County from a visit with her mother in Bonifay when the crash occurred, according to Jenkins.
FHP reports state that the crash occurred on Interstate 10 near mile marker 152 in eastern Jackson County around 8 p.m. Tuesday.
According to reports, a commercial truck carrying lumber lost part of its load along several miles of I-10. Mrs. Isaacs was a passenger in a car traveling about a minute behind the truck.
When a piece of landscape-type timber fell from the truck into the path of the Isaacs' vehicle, Mark Isaacs swerved in an attempt to avoid it but struck the post and lost control of the vehicle.
The 1999 Mitsubishi he was driving then spun and overturned, its roof collapsing and trapping Mrs. Isaacs, according to FHP reports.
Pitman is expected to be in treatment at Shepherd Spine Care Center in Atlanta for the next several months, according to Jenkins.
Medical bills and other related expenses are piling up on the young couple, Jenkins said, and the FHP family is asking for donations to help them cope.
A trust fund has been set up at Wachovia Bank. The Duty Officer Pitman Trust account number is 20000258930.
Jenkins said the Isaacs had been married about two months when the crash occurred.
"They had just moved over here from Holmes County," Jenkins said. "We were in the process of helping them get some furniture in there; they were that new to to this area."
Jenkins described Mrs. Isaacs as a high-energy employee, someone he considered an up-and-comer in the department.
"She liked working the busiest channels, because she was really a bright bubbly person who liked to work and keep busy," Jenkins said.
"We could see right away that she had a lot of potential, even though she'd only worked for us about nine months.
"The best we can do for her right now is try to raise some money to help her, and to find the truck that was involved. We believe there were three crashes related to this incident that night.
"The logs were strewn from the crash site all the way to Gadsden County, and we're hoping someone can put us on the path of the truck. We don't have too much reliable information on it right now."
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call Jenkins at (850) 245-7700, ext. 231, or to e-mail him at jenkinsm@flcjn.net.
Isaacs is the daughter of Donna Kent of Bonifay.
Duty Officer Amber Pitman
