Father thankful for miracle after son survives crash with tractor-trailer truck

A Waverly Hall, Ga., father said a miracle saved his son after he was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer Tuesday on Interstate 75 South in McDonough, Ga.

“The whole thing was a miracle,” Mike Harris said of his 28-year-old son, David, surviving the crash. “Ain’t no other way to explain it.”

The father said even the wrecker driver and emergency personnel couldn’t explain how David survived the crash, which occurred just after 8 a.m. at Exit 216. He escaped with a sprained right ankle, a burn over his eye from the air bag deploying and a burn on his side from the seat belt.

“They didn’t expect him to be alive under there,” Mike said.

The son, a resident of Tucker, had turned onto the exit but ended up stopping his Mercury Milan behind an 18-wheeler in backed-up traffic. After stopping, the son said a second tractor-trailer drove behind him but apparently couldn’t stop.

“It hit him and turned him to the side like a deck of cards,” the father said. “The other 18-wheeler went to the other side while pushing the car.”

The force from the tractor-trailer pushed his Mercury beneath the rear of the trailer where he had stopped.

The son uses crutches to walk but has no internal injuries.

“He needs some help now so he is down here with us,” Mike said.

A CAT scan at the hospital confirmed the son escaped serious injuries.

“We are thankful,” the father said.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Father thankful for miracle after son survives crash with tractor-trailer truck."