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Jordyn Carol King, 20, initially told Daily Voice "with 100% certainty" that an initial report from authorities that she apparently fell asleep behind the wheel wasn't true. "It was what it is being reported as: an accident,” she said.
In a GoFundMe campaign that she has since launched for herself, King now says that "many details of the wreck are difficult for me to recall."
Following the Nov. 15 crash, she writes, she closed her eyes to think and "a flash of me switching lanes and going toward a semi truck in the emergency lane popped into my head. That's all I can recall of how the accident happened.
"I woke up to the windshield of my car directly in my face along with the back of the semi truck."
King says she'd packed up all her belongings the night before and left New Paltz, NY, to head back home to Greer, SC around 5:30 a.m. in order "to beat the snowstorm that was coming that night."
About an hour later, her Nissan Senta slammed into a Charlie International Transport trailer on the southbound highway just south of Exit 66.
Members of Mahwah Rescue Company 1 did an extensive extrication -- moving a flat-screen TV, pillows, blankets and other belongings to get to her -- with help from township Fire Companies 2 and 4 and the Franklin Lakes Rescue team.
"It was pure luck and that her car was lower to the ground," one responder told Daily Voice. "The hood folded over the steering wheel like an accordion but only a few inches over. What was left of the top windshield was sitting on her face."
AirMed One flew King to Hackensack University Medical Center with severe facial injuries, fractured ribs and head injuries from the broken windshield.
"I remember how kind the paramedics were as they calmly talked to me and worked with me to keep me safe," King writes on her GoFundMe page. "[They] carefully got me out of my car and placed me into the helicopter" and "definitely made me feel like I would make it.
"I remember getting to the hospital and many doctors talking to me, but it's extremely difficult for me to recall the timeline of events as I was going in and out of consciousness.
"The next thing I remember is waking up on Friday (Nov. 16) around 3 p.m. in the hospital."
King says she created the GoFundMe page "because I do not have health insurance and I have an extensive amount of injuries.
"I am currently using a cane for walking assistance due to the pain and swelling in my left leg," she writes. "I tore a nerve in my left eye and cut open the left side of my face that is stitched up from my eyebrow all the way around to my ear.
"I have bruising and abrasions on my chest, hands, and abdomen. I have fractured ribs and sores on my head from the glass. I most likely will need physical therapy and mental health therapy."
Donations will "help me pay for my recovery that I will be working on for a very long time," she said.
As of Thursday, she'd raised $535 of her $10,000 goal in eight days.
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ALSO SEE: A South Carolina woman whose sedan slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer on the shoulder of Route 287 in Mahwah last week said she was grateful to be alive. She also told Daily Voice that she didn’t fall asleep behind the wheel, as authorities initially believed.
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