Two Gaston men are recovering after being hit by an alleged drunken driver

Two Gaston County men were hospitalized last week after being struck on the side of the road.

Dylan Bailey and Gary Tyler Murks were driving home from a fishing trip Tuesday, March 5, when they noticed an unusual sound coming from their truck.

Turning on their hazards, the pair pulled the car into a center lane on Southpoint Road and stepped out to investigate.

According to Bailey, when the men first stopped the car, a white truck sped past them, barely missing their vehicle.

Bailey immediately pulled out his phone to use the flashlight as a warning for other drivers when he noticed a Jeep heading toward them that was not slowing down.

“When she hit the corner of the boat, it threw her sideways. She threw me 30 foot up in the air, 30 foot past (Murks), and then the boat came sideways, fishtailed, and hit (Murks), sent him flying and he landed in a ditch,” Bailey said.

The Jeep continued up the side of the boat and truck, turning them around completely before spinning out of control and flipping into the ditch that Murks had just been thrown into, Bailey said.

The Jeep rolled over Murks in the ditch, breaking his spine in the process, according to his mother, Heather Craig.

Craig, Bailey, and his mother, Pamela Bailey, became emotional while he recounted the incident Monday afternoon.

After crawling out from under the truck, Bailey immediately went to check on Murks who was yelling that he couldn’t move and screaming for help, he said.

“Him and his cousin are very close, they’re like brothers. It affected both of them,” Pamela Bailey said.

“My son told me that Dylan was able to crawl over to him and my son asked him if he was gonna die,” Craig said.

“They held onto each other until someone got there,” Pamela Bailey added.

According to Dylan Bailey, Ashley Landis Whistlehunt, the driver of the Jeep, attempted to get into the same white truck that had passed the men right before the collision.

The collision happened in front of the home of a Belmont police officer who stopped Whistlehunt from leaving, he said.

Dylan Bailey left the hospital with a broken shoulder and rotator cuff as well as bruising on his lungs, back and leg.

Murks is still in the hospital with a broken spine, ribs, leg and ankle among other injuries.

"I don't know how either one of them survived except by the grace of God," Pamela Bailey said.

At the time of the accident, a blood alcohol content test revealed that Whistlehunt was intoxicated at more than two times the legal limit, according to WSOC-TV.

Whistlehunt is charged with DWI, felony serious injury by vehicle, expired registration, inspection violation and failure to reduce speed. She was released from jail two days after the incident and posted a $250,000 bond.

“One careless decision, one wrong decision caused all of this for these boys for the rest of their life, and they both have little girls that they can’t be a real father like they should be able to for them because of her decisions,” Pamela Bailey said. “Yet she’s out of jail. She’s free. She’s getting to go and do whatever she wants.”

“And my son is in the hospital screaming for hours on end,” Craig added.

The family said they are struggling to understand why Whistlehunt decided to drive that night.

In a video call from his hospital bed, Murks said, “It don’t make any sense why people want to get in cars and drink and drive, just a split second, you know, could change somebody’s whole entire life.

“There’s so many things out there today, Uber, all these things, you know a friend, or just anything could’ve saved us from all this heartache that we’ll go through, and like I said, the biggest thing is my little girl, you know? There’s no telling how long it’ll be before I can pick her up or just play with her... I don’t want to wish no bad on her or anything, but I just want her to pay for what she’s done.”

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston men hospitalized after being hit by an alleged drunken driver