A Fort Worth firefighter is sharing her story after being hit by a car while responding to a call on New Year's Eve.
Shonna Moorman, a 20-year veteran with the Fort Worth Fire Department, said there was one thing on her mind on the morning of Dec. 31, seconds after she stepped onto the scene of a rollover just south of the Texas Motor Speedway.
“Run,” Moorman said. “The only thing I could think of was just, 'Run.'”
This was after she heard brakes lock up.
“I knew that my only escape route would be to run to the front of the engine, so I immediately ran toward the front of the engine. I almost made it,” she recalled. “It wasn’t until I started to come around the engine that I saw it over my shoulder.”
Moorman was hit by a car and treated at a local hospital, suffering serious, traumatic injuries to her left leg.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
The pain can be unbearable at times, she said.
“I’ve had to spend a lot of time with my leg up on the couch, which is very hard especially when you have -- I have a daughter who’s a senior in high school and an 11-year-old daughter. They’re both involved in sports and multiple things in school,” she said at a news conference Thursday.
Mike Drivdahl, who also works for the Fort Worth Fire Department, said Moorman's situation could have been far worse but that it serves as a sobering reminder for drivers to move over and slow down when seeing first responders and other workers on the roadway.
In the first two weeks of the new year, Drivdahl said seven first responders have been hit on roadways across the country, including a police officer and firefighter in Lubbock who were killed Jan. 11 while working a crash on Interstate 27.
“It’s tough to lose people that you work with and that you love, because we are family,” he said. “I never met the firefighter in Lubbock, but my heart goes out to their family and those they work with because they were doing their job.”
Moorman said multiple firefighters who visited her in the hospital told her it wasn’t fires that scare them anymore, it’s highways.
“It’s not only us that it’s affecting. It affects police officers, tow truck drivers,” she said. “We’re there to help you. We can’t help you if we’re a victim.”
Moorman said the driver involved stayed on the scene. He was distraught and apologetic, she said.
“I actually reached out to him and let him know I was OK. I wanted to make sure he was OK. I know that him and his family are praying for me,” she said.
Fort Worth police said Thursday no charges have been filed. Moorman said she plans to return to work once she fully recovers.
