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Collin Shelby's car was barely recognizable after it crashed into a tree early Tuesday.

Story of Survival

Steve Stoler reports

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LOWRY CROSSING — The car that 16-year-old Collin Shelby had been driving is now in two pieces. The trooper who investigated the crash said any vehicle that ends up like that usually involves a fatality.

Collin was able to walk away from the wreck, something his family calls a "miracle."

The story begins when Collin was driving home to Lowry Crossing — a small community southeast of McKinney — from a friend's house early Tuesday morning. Collin said his car hit some gravel on the road and he lost control, crashing into a tree.

"When I woke up, I tried finding my phone so I could call somebody," he said, but Collin wasn't able to find it. "So I just started walking."

The one-mile trek took him three hours.

"I couldn't believe he had walked home — much less crawled out of there at all," said Collin's mom, Kim Gardener.

The teenager suffered a deep cut on his head that required 18 staples. He broke his rib and has road rash across his body.

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"I just started walking," Collin Shelby said.

After looking at his car, Collin said those injuries seem minor. "Thank God; it's a miracle," he said. "I guess He has a plan for me, because it's just unbelievable how bad it is."

Even though it took him three hours to get home, Collin told his mom it felt like he was walking for just five minutes. "It was because God carried him home," Gardener said. "It's a miracle."

Collin Shelby only spent a few hours in the hospital before coming home. And while walking away from that wreck defies logic, he said there's nothing logical about miracles.

E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com