A bizarre chain of events during and after a Vicksburg High School football game Friday night sent a coach to the hospital, along with a player's mother.
The cab of an 18 wheeler came to rest in the median of I-20, just before the Indiana exit in Vicksburg. Ellen James was driving an SUV.
"The cab of the truck stopped, the fence caught it." said James. "The pole caught it and it stopped, but the trailer part kept coming. It was like a wind had picked it up and was coming towards my truck. And the lord sent a pick up truck through and pushed me over up against that embankment."
James said she was going west and the 18 wheeler was going east. All four people in her car suffered minor injuries.
James says the truck driver's son may have caused the wreck.
"It wasn't that he was sleeping or reckless" said James. "He lost control because his son was in there fighting him."
At the time of the crash, James and her family were on the way to the hospital to check on Vicksburg High School football coach Tavarius Johnson.
According to witnesses and a Jackson public schools spokesman, a fight between Vicksburg High and Murrah hHgh broke out in the fourth quarter, after our cameras left the Friday night game. The contest was eventually called due to the fight.
James, whose son plays for the Gators, was at the game.
"The coach went out to protect the team, just to stop it" said James. "And when he went out there a player on the other team took his helmet off, on Murrah, and hit the coach with his helmet."
James says she is thankful no one in the crash or Johnson were seriously injured.
"I'm blessed." said James. "I had God's shield of protection all around me, and I know it was the Lord."
We're told coach Johnson has been released from the hospital.
Vicksburg Police, Vicksburg Public Schools and the Mississippi High School Activities Association couldn't be reached for comment.
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