Video: The Danny Hampson Story

Transcript for The Danny Hampson Story

Danny Hampson

I got a ride with this kid I knew. He was kind of a friend, kind of more of an acquaintance, and I just—you know, I wasn’t spending any time with him when I was out there. I just got in the boat with him, and he had two girls in the boat that I didn’t know. As soon as I got in the boat, he was just driving a little bit sporadically and stuff. And then, after we got through the no wake zones, he really took off and was just driving super, super, super fast. I think he was trying to show off for the girls. It was really out of control. He went through a little side cut into Snake Creek, and I don’t really remember what happened, but I guess he just lost control of the boat because he was going way too fast up into the mangroves.

One girl got hurt really bad. She was actually in Mariners Hospital up here for a couple of weeks. I was in the hospital for about a week. I was in intensive care at Jackson Memorial for three days. At first, they thought I was going to be paralyzed. My little brother was freaking out, he had to see me like that, all laid up. And my mom was a wreck, and my dad was freaking out. I just got really lucky. Like, God looked out for me. Because I could be completely paralyzed or dead.

It’s rare that you walk away as good as I did from where my injury was on my neck. You always think it never can be you, and nothing’s going to happen, and you kind of think you’re invincible or whatever, but your whole life could change, like, that quick. Even if you don’t get hurt and you’re the driver, it’s still going to ruin your life if someone is seriously hurt or injured. So just really take your time and make good decisions. It’s really not worth doing something silly to affect the rest of your life.