Mom who lost her legs in head-on crash talks to ABC13

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Two years ago, Gillian Taylor and her best friend were on their way to their children's daycare. They had planned to take the kids to a birthday party.

"It was my son Aidan's third birthday. We were going to have cake and ice cream at the park," Taylor recalled.

They never picked up their children.

Taylor and Miesha Veal were hit by an impaired driver on Veterans Memorial Drive. The car, driven by Tika Anderson English, swerved into their lane.

"I thought it was a kid at first," said Taylor.

Then came the crash.

Taylor was pinned into her seat with the steering wheel against her chest. Veal had been asleep when it happened.

"All I remember is the pain, and then nothing," Veal recalled.

She was freed from the wreckage, but her injuries were profound. Her liver was punctured, her kidneys as well, her pelvis was broken and both her legs were crushed.

"I was missing three toes on one foot," she said.

After several days, doctors told her she could develop a bone infection that might kill her if her legs weren't amputated.

Veal, a mother to a son and daughter, said her thoughts were of them. She agreed to lose both her legs.

"I still came home, not whole, but able to be there and sort of get my life back together," she told ABC13.

Court records note a previous felony drug conviction five years earlier for English. A blood test after the crash showed she was impaired by methamphetamine.

This week, English went to trial on a charge of intoxication assault with a deadly weapon. The trial, in which English pleaded 'not guilty,' took three days. It took a jury less than two hours to return a verdict of guilty.

Veal gave an impact statement about how her life has changed since the crash.

"What I really wanted to tell her is that she robbed me of my life and my legs," she said. "She's still not taking responsibility for what she did."

"We've told our story a million times," said Taylor. "To investigators, counselors, but this is the time we got to tell our story in court and get justice."

She has pain from the back injuries caused by the crash, but her thoughts remain concentrated on the price that her friend paid.

English faces a sentence range from 25 years to life in prison Veal hopes she gets the harshest time.

"I won't have my legs for the rest of my life. I want her to know how that feels to be confined," she added.

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