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Stolen SUV veers into, shatters life of family
By JANEL STEPHENS ST. PETERSBURG -- Gregory Clark couldn't breathe. His lungs had collapsed and the seat belt -- which might just have saved his life -- was lashed hard against his chest. Beside him lay the crumpled body of Kangha, his wife of 21 years and mother of their four children. Her neck was broken, her lungs punctured, her hip and knees shattered. He reached over and touched her arm. Kangha looked at him, her eyes pleading. "Hold on, baby," Gregory whispered as the wail of the ambulance drew near. "I love you." Just minutes earlier, the Clarks had been heading toward their church, Mount Zion Progressive Baptist, with their two teen daughters in the backseat. Suddenly, a stolen Dodge Durango SUV screamed west on 18th Avenue S just past 22nd Street. It veered into their lane and slammed head-on into their Toyota Camry. Seventeen-year-old Shawntavia was sitting behind her father when the SUV struck. "I grabbed the back of his seat. I said, 'Daddy, stop!' " she recalled a few days ago from the waiting room of the intensive care unit at Bayfront Medical Center. The SUV rocked the Camry so hard that it shattered all four of the Toyota's windows and crushed the car's front doors. "All I saw was this big black vehicle," Gregory Clark, who is 40, said from his hospital bed in the trauma unit at Bayfront Thursday afternoon. "It just came at me like a tank." He had surgery on his broken hip Thursday. He will recover, as will his two daughters, who suffered lesser injuries. His wife's situation is more precarious. She is in a coma and remained in one Friday night. Often, a traffic accident merits only small mention in the newspaper. This one happened Feb. 9. A brief item without any names was published Monday. But after the accident, the news doesn't stop for the families, who are left to rebuild what they had. Before the crash, Kangha Clark, 37, was sitting in the passenger seat. Shawntavia and 15-year-old Janay were in the back. The SUV ended up on the sidewalk after the accident, the Camry in the middle of the road. The driver of the stolen vehicle ran away. In the Camry, none of the Clarks could even get out. Up front, Kangha was silent. Her body was slumped and her legs were crumpled under the weight of the dashboard. Beside her, Gregory silently told himself to be strong, be strong. The impact threw Shawntavia to the other side of the backseat. Janay was knocked on the floor behind her father. Someone who saw the accident called for help. Paramedics were quick to arrive. Gregory Clark planned to drop his wife and two daughters at Mount Zion Progressive Baptist on 955 20th St. S, where they would meet up with the girls youth group to go to the African-American Festival at the Mahaffey Theater. They weren't far from their destination when the accident happened. Witnesses told police that the driver of the Dodge Durango ran, heading south on 23rd Street. Police later arrested a 14-year-old boy on separate drug charges and say he is strongly linked to the crash, said St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa. The Dodge Durango had been reported missing on Feb. 7 from the driveway of a house on 34th Avenue N, police said. Such a serious crash, Kajtsa said, is rare. "Most of the time, cars stolen by juveniles are found abandoned on the street," he said. "They drive them until it runs out of gas and steal another one." Dodges remains on city's list of top stolen vehicles. In the ICU waiting room at Bayfront Medical Center, a vigil continues. Family members and friends wait to hear news of Kangha Clark's progress. Some bring pillows and blankets for the long day ahead. Others bring food for lunch and dinner. Several hold Bibles in their hands. The Clarks have been members of Mount Zion since 1993. Kangha, a pharmacist technician and insurance specialist, leads My Sister's Keeper, the church's girls youth group. Gregory owns a home maintenance and pressure cleaning business called Grmashja (the first two letters in his children's names from oldest to youngest). He's on Mount Zion's basketball team and assists the Boys 2 Men youth group. Shawntavia and Janay both attend Boca Ciega High School. Their brothers, Marcus, 19, and Gregory Jr., 20, were with friends and at work when the crash occurred. "I was in shock when I realized my sister and parents were in an accident and knew there was nothing I could do," Gregory Jr. said. So, with the help of his uncle, Andre Mitchell, he began making calls to tell loved ones the bad news. He talked to grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and best friends. Many met the family at the hospital soon after the crash. "We have had prayer vigils across the state of Florida, including Missouri," said Gregory's mother, Retha Nero. "We know that that is where the source is. That's our foundation. That's our faith."
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