Street racing spectator run over by 200 mph car, survived
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Street racing seems to be on a lot of tongues today after that big 'street takeover' in Austin over the weekend. We spoke with one young man in Conroe who knows the dangers of street racing, firsthand.
Cody Langley was hit by a street racer who was driving nearly 200 miles an hour and he lived to tell about it. "When it (the car) hit me it picked me up, and I like hit the top of the car, and then I went flying," Langley explains.
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We have video of the two vehicles zipping by, racing on a Northwest Harris County road as Langley was there watching and seconds from being run over. "It just so happen I decided to stand at the finish line, and he lost control and hit me. (At 180 miles an hour?) 180, 200 something like that," says Langley.
The red Camaro that hit Langley looked like it collided with another car and had serious front-end damage after impact. Langley, who was a high school senior in March 2019 when it happened, was left with a Traumatic Brain Injury and barely survived.
Cellphone video shows dangerous illegal street takeover in heart of Texas
EDITORS NOTE: This video is from a previous story. While cars did donuts in the intersection surrounded by the mob, an Austin police car could be seen trying to approach the intersection. Then, the crowd is recorded overwhelming the police officer and shooting fireworks at the vehicle.
"I broke both my legs. I fractured my pelvis in four places. I lacerated my spleen. I broke, fractured vertebrae in my back. Bruised my lungs so bad they had to give me a breathing tube. Breathing tube gave me Bacterial Pneumonia, so they gave me a tracheotomy," Langley explains.
He suffered severe injuries to his face, including a broken nose and right orbital, doctors thought he’d be blind but after nearly a month in the hospital, he went to rehab for more than three months to learn to walk and even swallow again. "And then I just went to college after that," Langley smiles.
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His recovery has been miraculous. Now the 23-year-old walks, works full-time, and wants to encourage others who are broken, physically or emotionally, to heal one day at a time.
"You just got to keep going, put one foot in front of the other and keep moving," Langley encourages.
The man who was driving the red Camaro, Ronald Gray Pace III, was charged with Felony Racing and was given Deferred Adjudication. You may remember Pace is the son of Ronnie "Barefoot" Pace known for the show "Street Outlaws".