Wayne Howard was in the Imaginetics building on A Street Southeast at about 12:15 p.m. on March 25 when he heard screeching tires and the shock of metal on metal behind him.

“I turned and saw all the cars spinning and metal flying,” Howard said.

Howard and two other employees raced out to the company’s parking lot to see if anybody was badly hurt and needed help.

That’s when they saw the horrifically-smashed Ford Contour that had come to rest in Imaginetics’ main traffic gate.

“We had eye contact with the woman inside for probably 30 seconds. She probably took two breaths, and that was about it,” Howard said.

Inside a red Honda they found an injured man, a woman, and three small children. An older man who, Howard recalled, looked more shocked than hurt, was sitting in his pickup.

“We were more worried about the kids, and we just started getting the kids out and got them into the office and got blankets,” Howard said. “We were just trying to take care of them. The lady we helped out of the Honda was