DETROIT (WXYZ) — Kayla King is just one of the victims whose lives will never be the same after a tragic crash around 3:15 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 12 on I-96 near Martin Luther King Boulevard.
King, her two sisters and three others were in an SUV driving home from a night out downtown when another driver in a sedan was going the wrong way and hit them head-on.
“I'm grateful to be alive, but I just can't believe what's going on right now," King said.
King’s sister Kelsey Mitchell is the only sister who briefly remembers the scene before all were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
"I didn't really remember the car accident. I just remember the EMS truck and trying to break down the door and getting us out and everyone just lying on the ground,” Mitchell said. "Everybody was out unconscious."
“The only thing I can really remember is me waking up in so much pain and screaming," King said.
King has a severely broken leg and had internal bleeding. She’s a hairstylist and will now be out of work. She’s also a single mom to a 4-year-old daughter.
"When it comes to my baby, I make sure I make everything happen," King. "Me not being able to just jump up and do what I usually do for her, it break my heart."
King's other younger sister Airiel Mitchell is in nursing school but now has a broken leg and a fractured leg and remains in the hospital.
“I was really just confused. I woke up, my arm was in a cast, my leg was up, my leg was hurting,” Airiel Mitchell said.
Meanwhile, Kelsey Mitchell says she has four broken ribs, with fractures in her back, pelvis, face and more internal injuries.
“The accident was terrible, and the wrong-way driver didn't make it. I'm real grateful we survived the accident,” Kelsey Mitchell said. “When I woke up, that's the first thing I was asking about, where’s my sisters? Where's my sisters?”
Between Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, Michigan State Police responded to five fatal wrong-way crashes in 2023 and seven fatal wrong-way crashes in 2024. The vast majority of them happened after midnight, and all of them involved impaired or drunk drivers.
State police say they are still waiting for the medical examiners report to determine whether the at-fault driver in this crash was impaired or not.
“I didn't think that this happened for real. How do you drive the wrong-way on the freeway?” King said.
MSP shared a few tips: Don't drink and drive, buckle up and avoid the left lane, especially after midnight. They say many wrong-way drivers use the left lane believing they are actually in the right lane.
“Even though she almost took my life, I still forgive her,” King said of the female driver of the at-fault vehicle, while offering condolences to her family.
All three sisters launched online fundraisers to help with medical expenses but most importantly, they’re thankful to still have each other.
“It's not even just about the money. I just want people to keep praying,” King said.
Below are the links to the fundraisers:
