‘I thought I was dying’; Clayton County woman recalls moment she was ran over by a car

A woman says she thought she was going to die when an SUV ran over her and trapped her underneath. It happened in front of the Clayton County courthouse where a man who was with 55-year-old Christopher Belinda Spann was also hit.

Spann is not happy with how police handled the incident. She told Channel 2 Action News Tom Jones she almost died, yet the man behind the wheel was never arrested.

Spann says she was standing in front of the courthouse when suddenly she heard a boom. And she went flying. “All I know is that I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was dying. I thought I was dying,” she said from her hospital bed at Grady Hospital.

She also thought she was dying when she got to the hospital. “I flatlined once I got here.”

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Spann says it was frightening when the SUV slammed into her, dragged her, and trapped her underneath May 3. The rear tire landed on top of her back.

“The car was still running. And I am up under there. So, I am feeling the heat. Like I’m burning,” Spann said.

Crews had to rescue her and a friend whose leg was caught under the SUV.

Spann suffered a broken leg, broken pelvis and burns all over her back. She says she is in a lot of pain. “I can’t move. I cannot walk. I cannot turn myself. They have to turn me every two hours,” she says.

She and two others were standing outside the clayton county courthouse that day when police say 77-year-old Robert Lee Wells went around barricades, hit a tree and a handicap sign before hitting the victims. Jonesboro police say Wells did not even remember hitting anyone.

It angers Spann officers allowed him to leave the scene with his daughter. “I feel like it was wrong for them to let that man go,” she said.

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Police say Wells was injured and the jail does not accept injured detainees. They say Wells was cited for reckless driving.

“I say he shouldn’t have never been behind the wheel to begin with at 77,” Spann said. Police say Wells daughter also expressed concern about her father’s unsafe driving.

Police have now asked the state to review his license.

Spann says that is not enough. “I want the public to know that I just need justice. I need that man behind bars. I need for him to pay for what he did.”

Spann says she has had three surgeries and will have another one Friday morning. She was at the courthouse to contest her eviction. She says that legal process is now being appealed.

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Click on this link if you would like to help Spann deal with her mounting bills, click here .

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