Brad Farell

"In my wreck I made the choice to sit quietly in the back seat instead of speaking my mind and changing my circumstances."

Brad was driving home one summer after spending the evening hanging out with his cousins when a friend of theirs offered him and his cousins a ride home. The driver was speeding excessively and failed to slow down when turning a sharp corner. At the corner the car flew off the road and flipped. Brad was sandwiched between two of his cousins in the back seat as the car flipped, during the crash all three of them broke their necks. Brad's cousins were killed, yet he survived.

Because of the crash, Brad was in a coma for 2 weeks, paralyzed on the right side, in a wheelchair for three and a half months. The bone in Brad's neck that he broke is called the odontoid, the small bone connecting the 1st and 2nd vertebrae; this type of fracture is referred to as "the hangman fracture" the same fracture that killed his two cousins. Brad had to be in halo traction until his vertebrae were healed. 

After 24 years, Brad still suffers the effects of the crash. Today he is a stay-at-home dad for his 2 sons, and volunteers with ThinkFirst and at high risk driving classes.