Sara “Sally” Thompson, 85, said her family worried about her making an annual 430-mile trek to Florida by herself.

But it was the afternoon before that vacation in 2013, on the minutes-long trip to fill up her gas tank, that ended up causing life-changing injuries.

A drunken driver — already with three previous DUI convictions and an open bottle in his car — hit her car nearly head-on.

“It was a close thing for me,” Thompson said Thursday after the driver, 44-year-old Michael Bobbish Jr. of Mars, was sent to state prison. “The engine of my car ended up on my passenger seat because I swerved at the last minute before impact. Otherwise I would have died.”

Bobbish pleaded guilty to aggravated assault by vehicle while drunk and drunken driving. He was sentenced by Butler County Judge Timothy McCune to serve 27 to 109 months in prison.

Bobbish appeared in court in a wheelchair, and he told deputies who escorted him to prison that he could not stand on his own. He said he had 25 surgeries in three months.

His attorney, Jack Haller, said Bobbish’s leg injuries were related to the crash and are likely permanent.

“If not for the crash, he’d be walking today,” Haller said.

Thompson, who also still has significant mobility issues from her injuries, could not make it to court.

She spoke to the Eagle by telephone after the sentencing. In court, Judge McCune read Bobbish a statement Thompson had written earlier.

In the statement she summed up her injuries this way: “As one of my sons said, ‘Before the accident you were just ‘Mom’ and about to drive to Florida by yourself. Afterward you were this little old lady.’”

Thompson of Evans City said she and her husband Ted, had founded the Reddi-Green Turf Farm and couldn’t vacation in the summer. So annually they made a winter trip to Sarasota to see friends and family. After her husband died in 2001, Thompson continued the trips on her own.

“I didn’t worry about going alone,” she said. “Everyone else did that for me.”

On Jan. 29, 2013, she packed and planned to leave the next morning. About 2 p.m. she decided to drive to Cranberry Township to fill up the gas tank on her bright red Chrysler 300 to save time the following morning.

En route on Myoma Road in Adams Township, she saw Bobbish’s Nissan driving straight toward her, in her lane. She said at first she did not swerve thinking the other driver would see her and return to his lane.

She made a last second attempt to get out of the way, and still they collided head on.

“My car just stopped on the road, and the engine was on the seat next to me,” Thompson said. “He flipped and burned.”

Court records say Bobbish’s vehicle was badly burned. He told emergency medical responders that he’d been drinking from a bottle of hard liquor and Dr Pepper as he drove along.

According to court records, tests showed Bobbish’s blood alcohol was 0.195 percent at the time of the crash — nearly 2½ times the legal limit. Court records show that Bobbish, a social worker, already had three DUI convictions.

Haller said his client has an alcohol addiction, and has been to rehabilitation for that issue as well as his injuries since the crash.

Thompson, who suffered a broken ankle and core body injuries, no longer drives or can even make it to her second-floor bedroom. She moved a mattress to the first floor.

She also cannot tend to her garden as spring warms up, and it’s breaking her heart.

“I’ve come to realize I’m never going to be the same,” she said. “But I keep trying and I say to myself, “maybe I will be better this month than last month.”

Still, she forgives Bobbish.

“(At church) I asked for prayers for Mr. Bobbish in hopes that during his time in prison he will be cured and not put other lives in danger when he gets behind the wheel of a car again,” she said.