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Here's what happened.
Khali was winding up her summer job in Great Barrington and getting ready to go back to college. Then came the accident that caused injuries so severe that she required an eight-hour brain operation. She remained in a coma at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. "It is a miracle," Ali Zabian said of his daughter's survival. "But she's far from out of the woods." Khali Zabian, 19, was struck by an oncoming car about 10 p.m. Wednesday while standing in the northbound lane of Route 7 near Fountain Pond after she had hit some guardrails, police said. Her prognosis is still unfolding; tests show that bleeding has led to damage to the right side of her brain, and a little bit on the left side. "This translates to — not 100 percent — but a good chance she might lose the use of her left arm and leg and a little bit of speech," he said. Zabian said that doctors will gradually begin to wake her up, a process that could take another week to 10 days. "The next stage is rehab," he said. She has been studying aerospace physiology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and wants to be a physician's aide, he said. "She loves biology. She's just a great kid." In an interview with The Eagle, Zabian filled in some details about how Wednesday's incident unfolded, based on accounts he's heard from others at the scene. The Lee High School grad had just gotten off work at Naji's restaurant in Great Barrington when it happened. "She lost control of the car, and it was just one thing after another," he said. After striking the guardrails, Khali called 911, and another motorist who had stopped to help her was standing in the lane, directing northbound traffic around her disabled car with his flashlight, he said. The man told her father that she was standing behind him as drivers slowed down to go around them — except one. "The kids came barreling up the hill and not slowing down," he said. "When they saw what was going on they veered — veered into Khali." The driver, a 17-year-old, did not realize he had struck someone, the man told Khali's father. Police suspected the driver was high on marijuana. After administering a field sobriety test, police charged the teen with driving under the influence. Alcohol was not a factor, police said.
