She awoke from her induced coma, Mauceri says, “to the worst nightmare. Plus, all her family was in Australia, where she had lived until moving to the United States in 2009. She was a recently divorced hair stylist, living from pay check to pay check, and now she was out of a job, as well. Her colon also was punctured.Īdding to the stress was the fact that Mauceri had no medical insurance. “I was in a coma for a week, and woke up to many severe injuries.” Basically the right side of her body had been crushed, leaving a trail of broken bones from her feet to her neck. But now, nearly five years later, it’s important to share the rest of Mauceri’s tale because it changed her life - for the better. That was the end of the story as far as media reports go. Rescuers used the Jaws of Life to pry off the roof of her car to free her, then rushed her to the hospital. Mauceri’s right arm was broken in half, her legs were trapped in the wreckage, and the driver’s door was jammed shut. His blood alcohol exceeded the legal limit. The CHP accident report identified the other driver, who died in the inferno, as a San Diego Miramar College student named Preet Sheth, who had been drinking with friends. The black sedan headed the wrong way had erupted into a fiery torch visible for miles. “I remember a lot of people being around my car, trying to get in, but it was on fire.” Then along came her savior - a man who grabbed a fire extinguisher from his truck and used it to put out the flames coming from the bashed front end of her Mitsubishi Eclipse as onlookers cheered.

I couldn’t breathe.” Mauceri recalls seeing all four freeway lanes blocked, lit by the headlights of a long line of stopped vehicles. “The next thing I remember is waking up in my car with the dashboard and windshield sitting in my lap. 4, 2016, Mauceri, then 33, says she glimpsed a vehicle, with no lights on, coming straight toward her through the foggy mist. The bouquets are in memory of a 21-year-old man who nearly killed her.Īs she drove to her home in Encinitas in the fast lane of I-5 on Nov. 4, Gianna Mauceri places flowers beside the I-5 north freeway near the Balboa Avenue exit.

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