TAMPA, Fla. - Update (Jan. 2025): The case against Arda Sengun has been adjudicated through the court system. Mr. Sengun entered a plea agreement with prosecutors, which resulted in some initial charges being dismissed or reduced to lesser charges, according to online court records. As part of the plea agreement, Mr. Sengun agreed to probation, community service, continuing education, a year suspension of his license, among other requirements.
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Victim of wrong-way driver speaks out
Evan Axelbank reports.
Sarah Meredith is injured, but she also knows things could have been much worse.
"I am hanging in there, I am still very sore, but I am managing," shared Meredith.
The truck driver from Plant City was just starting her day, headed west on I-4 near Seffner at around 3:40 a.m. on July 28. She has forty years of experience, but didn't need nearly that much to know everyone on the road was in trouble.
A car was coming straight towards her and a group of other drivers.
Sarah Meredith was stuck in her truck for two hours.
"It was coming at us, but it was kind of sideways," she recalled.
READ: Wrong-way DUI driver causes multi-vehicle crash shutting down westbound I-4 for hours: FHP
As drivers in front of her started slamming on their breaks to avoid the wrong-way driver, she made the decision to snap her wheel to one side to avoid hitting a pickup in front of her with full force.
"When I turned that wheel, that's when I took the decision myself, and my own life, not knowing what the outcome of this was going to be," she said. "My training tells me not to do this, but I knew in my heart if I did not do it, somebody was going to die that morning and I did not want that on me."
Meredith's truck flipped over during the crash.
She wound up upside down for two hours with broken ribs and numerous bruises to her body and face. Rescuers worked for two hours to free her.
"I was begging them to help me. I tell them I can't breathe," she remembered. "They did a great job of what they could do for me."
Meredith has been a truck driver for 40 years.
She was life flighted to TGH while the wrong way driver, Arda Sengun, 22, of Sarasota, was arrested and found to have had a blood alcohol level of .187, more than twice the legal limit.
WATCH: Video: Suspected drunk driver runs red light, crashes into deputy cruiser: HCSO
"It's not right to the people that are just trying to make a living out here and live their normal lives for a drunk driver just come and take it all away from you," said Meredith.
Meredith is hoping to spread awareness of the dangers of drunk driving, now that she is the latest victim in a string of the wrong-way crashes that have plagued Tampa Bay.
"I don't want anybody else to go through the pain and suffering that I'm going through," she said. "Or if that accident did take my life, what would my family, my kids?"
The driver was bonded out of jail after just over 24 hours on a $2,000 bond.
He is facing charges of DUI with serious bodily injury.