Motorist survives dramatic pile-up — at the bottom

NOKOMIS — Tonja Peters was just minding her business at the corner of Albee Road and Tamiami Trail around noon Friday in Nokomis.

Then, in the span of seconds, she watched a chain reaction of crashes that left a white Kia on top of her car.

"I saw what happened," a calm Peters said Friday, standing on the roadside by the accident scene. "Yes, you could definitely say I saw what happened."

As she sat at the light, she saw the white Kia trying to turn from Tamiami Trail onto Albee Road. A white work van traveling on Tamiami Trail in the oppposte direction slammed into the Kia as it turned.

The crash had such force that the work van pushed the car on top of Peters' automobile.

She said the two people in the car on top of her were taken to the hospital as a precaution, adding that the passenger in the car appeared to already be using an oxygen tank.

Peters said she was fine, as people around her remarked how calm she was.

"What else can I do?" she said, smiling. "That's why they call it an accident."