A Grand Valley State University student is lucky to be alive after an auto accident on I-94 in St. Claire Shores left one person dead. As Nicole DiGirolamo, 19, drove down the expressway, she witnessed a semi-truck slam into another car, killing its driver, before the truck began heading straight for hers.
The next few moments she says, are a blur.
"I remember the boom in the back," DiGirolamo told WDIV TV. "(The next thing) I remember is this female firefighter saying to me, everything was going to be OK -- 'Hang on and hang tight.'"
The truck had fallen on its side and crushed the front of DiGirolamo's car, missing the GVSU nursing student by inches.
Miraculously, DiGirolamo walked away with only a few minor aches and a black eye. She says, the accident has given her clarity about becoming a trauma nurse through Grand Valley State University’s nursing program.
"I definitely think now that I was saved for a reason. I think there's something I have to do with my life that I may or may not have gotten the opportunity to do before this accident," she said. "So I'm pretty excited to see what that is because I may not have gotten that opportunity before."