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Powhatan mother, son escape injury after tree crushes car

Posted at 11:41 PM, Mar 06, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-06 23:41:40-05

Powhatan mom Katy Nixon was driving east on Route 60 to grab breakfast, when a big pine tree slammed down on her windshield.  She says if it had happened seconds later it would've been worse.

Not much is left of the tree that blocked Nixon's breakfast run and did some serious damage to her SUV.

“We were traveling about 20 miles per hour and the tree falls,” Nixon said.  She was in Powhatan headed towards Old Tavern.  The tree smashed into her windshield, and she and her seven-year-old son Keaton start to scream.

“We were both scared, and I was hysterically crying," she said.

The good news is Katy, Keaton and their dog Carly escaped without a scratch.   The damage to her SUV, though, is a different story.

Nixon says they had just bought the Kia two months ago, brand new.  She says she bought it to start over after spending several months without a job.  Her husband tells CBS 6 if he didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.

But Katy says that's debatable, considering how close they came to serious injury.  “Seconds later, it would've come through the roof and the branches would've pierced the sunroof, possibly hurting us,” Nixon said.

Deputies tell me Ms. Nixon wasn't the only lucky survivor: they had a few homeowners who dodged trees that fell on their homes, too.