ORLANDO, Fla. – A 27-year-old Orlando woman has spent the past 10 months in recovery after being struck by an Orlando Police cruiser last year.
Miranda Ehrich said on the night of Nov.12, 2021, she and a friend were walking home from the EDC Music Festival.
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When she went to cross the intersection of Orange Avenue and Colonial Drive, and Orlando Police Department officer struck her, breaking nearly 20 bones in her body. She said she has spent the past 10 months in recovery related to her injuries.
“When I first work up in the hospital, I thought it was July. I didn’t even realize it was November. My brain injury was so significant,” Ehrich said.
Video of the crash was recorded by an Uber driver’s dash camera.
“The police department told my family he got a call, and he got onto the road without turning his sirens on, and just, I guess just floored it, and you can even tell in the video, he doesn’t use the brakes as he’s hitting me,” Ehrich said.
Ehrich said she spent four months in a wheelchair after the crash. Her medical bills reached over $1 million, and then she said she lost her job.
“Then my job actually fired me for being on medical leave for too long so that it dropped my insurance until I could get COBRA set up. We had to cancel my surgery and reschedule it, but I was finally able to have surgery,” Ehrich said.
Ehrich said it wasn’t long until she got a call from an Orlando detective assigned to the case.
“He called me, and he was just like, ‘I’m calling to tell you you’re getting two tickets. You have 30 days to pay them, or you’ll have to come to court,’” Ehrich said.
In the beginning of her recovery, she placed a lot of guilt on herself. Nearly a year later, she said she’s proud of how far she’s come.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned from this accident is that we are capable of more than we realize. We are stronger than we realize,” Ehrich said.
Law enforcement has previously commented on the case, saying the officer didn’t violate any rules.
A GoFundMe was set up for Ehrich, which can be found here.
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