Surfside Beach man recovering after car accident left him a quadriplegic

SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - A Surfside Beach man is finally home after recovering from a horrific car accident that turned him into a quadriplegic.

The crash happened in March, but Ronnie Roberts just returned home last week after spending months in Atlanta at a center for spinal cord injuries.

Roberts was a bus driving instructor for Horry County Schools. He was driving from his home in Surfside Beach to the Midlands to teach a driving class. But he never realized that drive to work would turn his life upside down.

“Ran into some deer. Lost control of my car. Hit a tree and totaled my car. I was knocked unconscious,” Roberts said.

Roberts woke up in a Columbia hospital as a quadriplegic. He broke bones in his face, neck and damaged his spine, just to name a few of his injuries.

Currently, he has almost no feeling from his mid-chest down. He can move his arms, but not his hands.

“I’ve had seven surgeries so far, and I’ve got two more I’ve got to do,” Roberts said.

He has to drink water from a tube that extends from his bed down to a bottle on the floor. What used to be simple, everyday tasks are now things he’s unable to do without help.

It’s particularly hard for him to be in a state like this since he was so energetic before the wreck.

“Well, I’d say we were pretty active,” he said. “We loved going to our church, and back before I got into law enforcement, I was a carpenter. We’d build houses.”

Roberts’ life-changing accident has left him with more expenses than he’d like to think about.

His wheelchair cost over $10,000. A ramp to allow him to access his home from his chair cost around $30,000.

And there are countless more projects on the to-do list to make his home more accessible, like widening doorways and making his shower accessible.

Roberts’ daughter-in-law Bennie created a GoFundMe page to help raise money for the projects. She said every bit helps.

“There are so many people cheering on him. For every card that he’s receiving or every progress we’re making toward some kind of financial goal just makes every day so much better, and it means the world,” Bennie Roberts said.

Click here to donate to Roberts’ family.

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