Tree crashes through windshield and impales husband, wife says. ‘Didn’t even feel real’
A daytime outing took a scary turn for a Georgia family when a large tree came crashing onto their car during heavy storms in the Atlanta area.
Laura Sotelo and her son walked away with a few scrapes, but she soon realized her husband’s injuries were much more severe: Part of the tree had impaled him.
Recalling the freak accident, Sotelo said her family is grateful to be alive.
“The entire tree fell down but ... an 8-foot branch came crashing through our windshield,” she told McClatchy News of the July 2 incident. “It all happened so fast and it didn’t even feel real.”
She, her husband, Anthony Sotelo, and their son were driving along Roswell Road in Sandy Springs after a trip to the thrift store for some books. Sotelo said she had been driving all day, so her husband offered to take the wheel.
“I thought nothing of it and we switched,” she recalled. “It started raining so we decided to take the non interstate route ... thinking we would be safer this way. Boy were we wrong!”
Soon after, the storm sent a tree toppling onto their car. The couple didn’t realize how grim the situation was until Anthony looked down to see the branch had stabbed his torso and “obliterated” his belly button, according to the family’s GoFundMe.
Acting on “pure adrenaline,” he pulled the branch from his body, Sotelo told McClatchy News. He put pressure on the wound as his wife called 911.
“Looking back this was a horrible decision,” Laura Sotelo said of her husband removing the branch himself. “And he is lucky he didn’t bleed out.”
Anthony Sotelo underwent emergency surgery after arriving at the hospital, where doctors also were able to repair his hernia, according to the GoFundMe. The couple’s 8-year-old son, who was riding in the backseat, suffered minor abrasions from the broken glass.
“We are just so grateful to all be alive,” Laura Sotelo said. “This could have been so so much worse. I could have lost the love of my life in a matter of seconds.”
The Sandy Springs Police Department did not respond to a request for more information.
Sotelo said her husband has a “long, slow and difficult” road to recovery and will likely be out of work for the next few months.
Sandy Springs is about 15 miles north of downtown Atlanta.
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