Wreck revisited a Quarter Century later
When a devastating accident happened along Albany’s Main Street in March of 2000, it made headlines and left a lasting impression on the community.
At the time, The Albany News covered the details, the chaos, the injuries, and the immediate aftermath. But like many small-town stories, once the sirens faded and the headlines moved on, there was never a full follow-up.
What happened after?
Twenty-six years later, that question finally has an answer.
Ann Younger, the nine-year-old girl from Hydro, Oklahoma who was critically injured in that wreck, is now a wife, a mother of three, and, in her own words, “a walking miracle.”
On March 17, 2000, Younger and her parents had stopped in Albany for lunch at The Hunter’s Inn. As they walked back to their pickup, her father realized he had forgotten to leave a tip and handed Ann a couple of dollars to take back inside.
What happened next unfolded in seconds.
“My dad said, ‘I forgot to leave a tip,’ so he sent me back in,” Younger recalled. “When I got to the porch, they were yelling, ‘Run,’ but I didn’t hear them.”
A cattle truck carrying around 100 head failed to make the sharp curve on Main Street, overturning and crashing into the restaurant. Younger was pinned and her legs were crushed.
“I remember hearing a loud crash,” she said. “At first, I thought it was a tornado.”
Despite the severity of the wreck, she never lost consciousness.
“I didn’t feel any pain at first,” she said. “I was in so much shock I was trying to move my legs, but I couldn’t even tell where they were.”
As the wreckage settled, danger still surrounded her. Frightened cattle were loose, some injured and kicking.
“There were men all around me,” she said. “They circled me to protect me from the cows.”
Among them were local residents who rushed to help, shielding her until emergency crews arrived.
Her injuries were severe.
Both legs were crushed, and she was rushed to Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, where she underwent multiple surgeries before being transferred to Oklahoma City. In all, she spent about three months in the hospital.
“My dad was my hero,” she said. “He never left my side the whole time I was there.”
She remembers pieces of that time, but much of it is a blur.
“I had a Super Nintendo in my room,” she said. “That’s about all I really remember from those months.”
Doctors told her it could be a year before she walked again.
She beat that timeline by a wide margin.
“They told me it would be a year,” she said, “but I walked into school that August.”
What followed was something few might have expected given the extent of her injuries.
Younger made a full recovery. She went on to play softball, even helping her team reach the state tournament her senior year.
Life moved forward.
She met her husband, Eric Gonzales, while the two were working together, and the couple married in 2019. Today, they live in Mountain View, Oklahoma and are raising three children.
Looking back now as a parent, the story carries a different weight.
“I can’t imagine something like that happening to my kids,” she said. “I don’t know how my parents made it through that.”
Still, she describes her life today as full.
Incredibly, the 2000 wreck was not the last time she would face a life-altering accident.
In May of 2023, while traveling to California for a medical procedure, she was involved in another serious crash. A friend traveling with her was killed. Younger was ejected from the vehicle, breaking her back and shattering her pelvis.
“I had to learn how to walk all over again,” she said. “It was flashback after flashback to what I went through as a kid.”
The recovery was long and difficult, echoing so much of her first.
But once again, she pushed through.
“I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been,” she said. “You wouldn’t even know anything happened to me.”
She credits that to determination, hard work, and her faith.
“Physical therapy, determination, and God,” she said. “That’s what got me through.”That faith has become a defining part of her life.
Following the 2023 accident, she said her life took a new direction. She was baptized in 2024 and now attends church regularly.
“It changed who I was,” she said. “It slowed me down and brought me closer to God.”
She has even returned to Albany, bringing her children to see the place where it all happened.
“It didn’t make me sad,” she said. “It just made me feel grateful.”
On the 26th anniversary of the Albany accident, she shared her story publicly, reflecting on how far she has come.
“26 years ago today Jesus used me. He made me a walking miracle when I was just 9 years old. My testimony is definitely a God story and this is just part of it. Long story, short…
I was walking into a cafe to leave a tip for the waitress, when a cattle truck with 101 head of cows came flying into town around a sharp curve. It flipped and pinned me between the cafe and the top of the cattle truck. I was crushed from the waist down, then infection set in. Doctors didn’t know if I’d make it and if I did if I’d ever walk again. But So many people were praying for my recovery. God showed up and showed out. I made a full recovery and I get to tell people what Jesus did for me!”
