When Puyallup resident Elisa Hays took the stage at the Western Fairs Association in Reno, Nev., on Jan. 13, she began her talk, “When Life Hits You Like a Truck,” with an anecdote from her childhood.
“I am 4, and I’m on a big stage with bright lights and a whole big audience. There’s a whole lot of other 4-year-olds with me and we’re dancing,” Elisa says in a recorded video as she dances in place, twirling with her cane in hand as the audience claps.
But while she’s mimicking the movements of her younger self, Hays, now 49, isn’t there to perform a dance routine. She’s there as a keynote speaker, to give a talk on what it means to be a leader even through life-changing events. For Hays, that life-changing event was exactly what the title of her talk suggested: a car accident.
“I share the story of what happened to me,” Hays said. “That’s the story, but it’s not the story. Terrible things happen to a lot of people. The real story is how me, my family, my company, my friends — how we respond to these circumstances.”
Hays grew up training in dance and theater and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
In the 1990s, she performed at the Washington State Fair. In 1999, she took over ownership of a children’s entertainment company called Let’s Pretend Entertainment. She also developed Sudsy’s Barn, a children’s handwashing station, and patented the product.
Hays traveled to fairs across the country for her job, and she was heading to a fair in Texas with two employees in 2014 as an ice storm was moving in.
An hour away from Wichita, Okla., Hays was driving along I-35 when her truck tires hit black ice. The trailer she was towing swung into the other lane, blocking almost the entire highway.
She watched as the headlights of a semi approached them. She knew instantly it was going to hit them.
“I had employed people for years, I had read about leadership, studied it a lot, but it wasn’t until that moment as I sat in the driver’s seat. I sat there having to make a choice,” she said.
Wanting to take care of her employees first, she urged them out of the truck. The trailer was first hit by a semi, then an SUV. A third vehicle, a semi driving 60 miles an hour, hit Hays as she attempted to flee to safety. She was thrown 90 feet in the air and impaled on a guardrail, still conscious.
When help finally arrived, Hays was flown to an ICU. She suffered a collapsed lung, lacerated kidney, a broken hand, a broken leg and a shattered pelvis.
Her family received a phone call, informing them that Hays had a less than five-percent chance of living.
But Hays held on. She spent four months hospitalized, including seven weeks in an ICU. She received life-saving treatment at eight hospitals in four states over a span of 18 months.
Now, Hays continues to entertain and share her message around the country and is writing a memoir called “Semi Tragic.” She hopes to release the book this year.
“Now, at almost three years post-trauma, I’m moving forward in life and sharing the lessons I’ve learned,” Hays said.
