According to a report from AL.com, 48-year-old Bobby Joe Smith, known to friends as Rusty, was finishing up his Friday night shift with Benton Construction along Lane Park Road where the crew was replacing natural gas lines for a new hotel under construction.
Around 12:45 a.m. Saturday, 26-year-old Amanda Brown hit Smith in her GMC Yukon and pinned him against a backhoe on the jobsite. The AL.com report continues:
“We had the girl back off him and then we noticed one leg was completely off and the other leg was hanging by the skin,” (supervisor Stacy) Beckom said. Beckom and co-worker Nick Kendrick took of their belts and used them as tourniquets, he said, and then used duct tape on Smith’s legs to keep him from bleeding out.
Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards told the site that the work zone was well lit and that Smith was working behind cones.
After the crash, Brown, who admitted to being under the influence after the accident, tried to drive away from the scene but was stopped by Smith’s co-workers. Afterward, however, she left the scene on foot to her apartment nearby. She has been charged with, “felony leaving the scene of an accident with injuries and first-degree assault which includes DUI,” AL.com reports.
Smith lost one leg in the accident but doctors are trying to save the other.
