WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - A couple is describing the moment a tree crashed on top of their moving car in Douglas, smashing the windshield and hospitalizing one.
The incident happened on South Street around 3 p.m. The couple inside the SUV had just picked up groceries and were about a mile from their home when a tree snapped and fell on top of their moving car.
“All of a sudden I heard a tree making a cracking sound, and as soon as I heard it, I seen it coming upon us into the car, hitting us, crushing us inside the vehicle,” said Piedade Desousa.
57-year-old Piedade Desousa and her 59-year-old husband Gil found themselves trapped. She said the windshield shattered and the airbags deployed.
“It was just awful. I looked around, I couldn’t get out,” Piedade said. “I looked to the right the tree was blocking me, I looked to the left, he’s unconscious.”
The tree had also pulled down powerlines, which were sparking around them.
Piedade said she was scared the car might catch fire, so she climbed out and went to her husband in the driver’s seat.
“I was able to grab him, pick him up over my shoulders with broken ribs just to get him out alive,” Piedade said.
She also said she has nerve damage to her leg and a broken rib. Her husband is in the hospital with a severe head injury.
“We’ll be all right, I mean we’re alive, and you know, I lost my trust in going home,” Piedade said. “I have fear to get out now into public in a car to even drive again.”
The couple’s car is totaled, and the medical bills are stacking up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“God was with us. I was in the wrong place unfortunately,” Piedade said. “I’m glad it was us, not a child getting out of school, walking home. It was about that time. A baby in the car, they would never have survived.”
Piedade’s son also set up a GoFundMe to support the couple’s recovery.
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