The man who hit former WMBB reporter Tess Rowland while he was driving drunk has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Jacob Savage was celebrating his 22nd birthday, when he drove his pickup truck in the wrong lanes of Panama City Parkway, striking Roland’s SUV head-on. Savage had a blood alcohol level one and a half times the legal limit and was not injured in the crash.
“You may be serving three years, but you, Mr. Savage, have handed me a life sentence,” Rowland said in court. “There isn’t a day I don’t live in pain, see my scars and shudder, or replay the final moments of the crash in my mind.”
She left the station last fall to accept a job as president of the national Mother Against Drunk Drivers organization.
“I woke up at 2 a.m. and I was headed into work going the same way that I always did, when suddenly I saw bright headlights coming right at me,” Rowland said during the driver’s sentence hearing Friday. “The next thing I knew, I woke up in an emergency room.”
Since then she has undergone seven surgeries and hours of rehabilitation. Before Savage was sentenced, Rowland and her family were allowed to present victim impact statements.
“She has four massive scars,” Rowland’s mother, Teresa Rowland, said during victim impact statements. “She cannot straighten her arm. She cannot lift more than five pounds on that right side or that right arm. And from little tasks from her hair to using a fork to everyday normal, zipping up her dress She has limitations.”
Savage apologized in court. He took a plea deal that calls for him to serve three years in prison and six years probation.
“It was definitely a difficult day for me to see the person that has stolen my life,” Rowland said. “And wrecked my dreams. But I’m very thankful that he took accountability and will be serving time.”