By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – When you meet Kenny Williams it is obvious the lifelong Pearl River resident has seen better days.
Williams may still wear his Saints shirt with pride, but both of his legs are in a casts, almost to his knees, and the lazy left eye is a sign of recent surgery when a plate was inserted behind his eye socket, hopeful of bringing back normal sight.
For the 43-year-old, the injuries are the outward signs of an auto accident on Oct. 11, 2014 when a Picayune man who had reportedly been drinking, ran head on into his truck, also severely injuring his wife, Melissa.
Kenny has been told by doctors that he faces a minimum of a year-long recovery from the accident, but that isn’t the thing that brings him the most pain.
“What do I think about all this?” Kenny responded, sitting in his trailer with his legs propped up. “I can’t sleep because I’m trying to figure out how to pay the bills. How do I take care of my wife and kids? I know it’s going to be a long time until I can work again.”
Kenny talks about his deceased dad, who taught him to “never buy anything if you didn’t have the money,” so he spent his life as an iron worker, taking on blue collar work that enabled him to make a living and support Melissa and their three children.
But now, after he and Melissa were injured so badly in the wreck that October night in Picayune, Miss., the family is facing a bleaker Christmas than they ever imagined—not to mention the uncertainty throughout all of 2015. Not only did they have no health insurance, but the driver of the vehicle that hit them was in a car that had questionable insurance, if any at all.
Attorney Shawn Reed, with the Howard & Reed firm in Covington, heard about the situation through other clients he had in Pearl River, and has taken on the case pro bono, simply trying to help the family. While Charity Hospital is providing medical care for Melissa and Kenny, they have quickly run through the small savings they had, and are now relying on family and friends to help with food, utilities and high-priced medications.
“It’s one of the most complicated situations I’ve seen in 20 years,” Reed said. “We’ll probably have to file a suit just to get someone to be named as the insurance company for either vehicle. But for now, it leaves these two without any kind of coverage or help at all.”
The accident happened on Hwy. 43 in Picayune, Miss. at 8 p.m. the night of Saturday, Oct. 11. Kenny and Melissa were driving on the two-lane highway, heading south towards their home in Pearl River when Kenny noticed a car coming at him.
“I saw the car and kept thinking he was in his own lane. Then when he was only a second or two away I realized he was in my lane, coming right at me,” Kenny said. “All I remember is leaning over and trying to hold Melissa from crashing into the dash.”
Shawn Murphy, 28, of Picayune, Miss., reportedly had a previous DWI conviction and was driving a car that belonged to someone else. Conflicting stories have been reported—first, that he was driving the car to consider buying it, although the woman who owned the car called police an hour before the accident to say Murphy was supposed to be driving it around the block, but had disappeared and allegedly had stolen the car, according to the owner.
“We obtained a police report from Picayune that verified she called police to say he had stolen the car,” Reed said. Murphy was charged with DUI Reed added.
While that has turned the liability situation of the insurance on that car into a mess, Kenny and Melissa saw their lives change forever that night. Murphy crashed into the front of Kenny’s Silverado truck, forcing the engine back into the front of the car on the driver’s side, and crushing Kenny’s legs under the steering wheel.
Melissa was not injured as severely, but remembers feeling fluid on her legs, and reached down to see blood flowing all over her from what turned out to be a badly gashed left arm that was open to the bone. She later required over 40 stitches, but says she has no feeling from her elbow to her shoulder.
“Kenny was going in and out of consciousness so I keep hitting his arm and telling him to talk to me,” Melissa said. “I thought he was going to die so I kept yelling at him to talk. Every time his head slumped down I made him wake up and talk again.”
Kenny says he remembers very little about the entire incident until being in the hospital where they determined his heels were crushed, as was his left eye socket, which required surgery and a plate to be put in. It will be months before he can attempt to stand again, and he will never return to his former job as an iron worker.
Besides her left arm being slashed open, Melissa had a broken right foot and whiplash.
The couple, both lifelong Pearl River residents, have their own issues with insurance on their truck. Since they were only married a year ago, they had recently tried to combine insurance on their vehicles and now are in a dispute about whether they were truly covered, or if they had uninsured coverage—something that is needed if Murphy turns out to not have insurance.
“It’s the worst of all words for the two of them,” Reed said. “It’s a lesson some of us learned in Katrina about carrying enough insurance in case someone else doesn’t have it. But as for now, we’re only trying to find some help for them to survive and pay the bills.”
Reed said they might ultimately sue whichever insurance company is determined to be in effect, but that could easily take years to ever provide any assistance for the couple at a time when they need it the most.
Meanwhile, Kenny worries day-and-night about taking care of his family.
“It’s kind of all I think about,” he quietly said.
Melissa’s mother, Terry Heath, has been the big help to the couple so far with whatever money she can offer, although she is a single woman working in Slidell at, of all things, an insurance company. Kenny’s sister, Brenda Walker, has also been a big help by cooking meals and driving them when needed. But one big cost continues to be going to New Orleans for doctor’s visits since that is the only place they can receive medical assistance due to their lack of insurance.
Other friends built a wheelchair ramp to the trailer door for Kenny, while he is using an old scooter from his grandmother to get around.
“My son is a senior at Pearl River High this year and he has senior activities he wants to do, but I don’t know where the money will come from,” Melissa said.
And Kenny said he was planning to give the teen the Silverado that now sits in the yard, totaled from the accident.
“He loved that truck, so I wanted him to have it,” Kenny said. “But I doubt he wants it now.”
The family has signed up with an online fundraising site. You can donate to the family by going to gofundme.com, and typing in Kenny and Melissa Williams. Or anyone who would like to help the couple can send checks to: Kenny and Melissa Williams, 37305 Sticker Rd., Pearl River, La., 70452. Money donated through gofundme.com has a percentage that will go to the online host.
Anyone who would like to talk to Terry Heath for more information can call her at 985-607-5370.