A Tacoma woman is counting her blessings tonight after she survived this rollover accident that blocked traffic on I-5 Thursday for hours.
"I just knew I was gone," Annastatia Gipson said. "I mean, you don't expect to be gone like that."
Investigators say she was an innocent victim -- caught between two drivers eyewitnesses One driver is on the loose. But the other driver is still at Tacoma General Hospital.
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Gipson stood beside her car at Lincoln Towing, not far from her North Tacoma home.
"It seemed like I was just being tossed from this side to that side," she said, "and finally ended up against the guard rail, I think, and then on my side."
The scars on her yellow 2016 KIA indicate a devastating accident. She says she didn't think she would survive.
"Because I seen something smoking," Gipson said.
Gipson says she was headed home from Madigan Army Hospital yesterday afternoon. She says she was alone in the far right lane traveling northbound on I-5. Suddenly, she says, Jeffrey Griffith, the 68-year-old driver of this convertible Mazda Miata, tried to pass her on the freeway shoulder.
"I seen the black car hit my car on this end," said Gipson.
The impact sent her vehicle flying. Eyewitnesses say the Miata went into tailspin and flipped over several times. Initially, the Washington State patrol feared for Griffith's life. But his brother said he was talking from his hospital bed. And Griffith insists he was not speeding, that he was trying to prevent Gipson from rear-ending him.
"No," she said. "He's lying."
Gipson is walking, albeit slowly. "I'm pretty sore," she said.
"Where are you sore?" she was asked.
"All up through here," she said rubbing her upper chest.
But she is grateful, she says, to be alive.
"Oh, yes," she said, nodding. "The Lord's with me."
Gipson is 75-years-old and a pretty hearty soul. She has 48 grandchildren and great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
As for the other driver's story, the Washington State Patrol says eyewitnesses debunk his claim.
They insist Gipson was without fault, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
Cox Media Group
