JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Nassau County woman has a warning for other drivers tonight after she was injured by an accessory she placed on her steering wheel. The accessory was used to decorate her steering wheel and she paid a hefty price when she was involved in a wreck.
"This is a photo of what was actually in my arm, it was an inch and a half, and it still had rhinestones attached," Hilliard Resident Logan Browning said.
Logan Browning decorated the steering wheel emblem of her 2020 Honda Accord with rhinestones from Amazon.
"I thought was very cute. Typical girl," Browning said.
On December 6th, Browning says she collided with another car while driving on State road 200 between Callahan and Yulee. The air bags deployed, and her car was totaled. Browning went to the hospital to get her bumps and bruises checked out .. and that's when she says doctors discovered a strip of the rhinestone emblem on her steering wheel was stuck in her arm.
"I didn't expect it to be a whole piece of plastic," Browning said.
UF Health Jacksonville Professor of Emergency Medicine Andrew Schmidt says injuries caused by car accessories are not common but some could still be dangerous.
"Airbags deploy pretty fast, estimate around 100 to 200 miles an hour, the airbag actually comes out of the steering wheel. As your body goes towards the dashboard, anything that's on there any object could potentially become a missile that could cause increased bodily harm," UF Health Jacksonville Professor of Emergency Medicine Andrew Schmidt said.
Now, Browning is warning others.
"I just want 16-and 17-year-old girls that are going out and getting new cars and buying all this cute little bit dazzle stuff for their car not to put nothing on their steering wheel," Browning said.
We reached out to the company Browning bought the rhinestone emblem and her doctor but have not heard back from either.