- December 16, 2025
After three months in a wheelchair, Shelbie Miller is driven to succeed in her quest to add a 20 mph zone on Matanzas Woods Parkway.
October. The driver’s door to the gold Saturn was crushed. Shelbie Miller was trapped, wedged into the seat, which was now 12 inches wide. Her hip was broken, and she wouldn’t walk again for three months. Those who saw the accident at the back entrance to Matanzas High School were afraid she might not even survive, but Miller, a junior who was taking all her classes at Daytona State College, had one thing on her mind: I’m not going to miss my test today. Tell my professor not to drop me from the class.
The only reason Miller was even at Matanzas that day was to attend an early morning National Honor Society meeting. When she arrived, she found out it was canceled. So, at a time when hundreds of students and teachers were entering via Matanzas Woods Parkway, she was leaving. Against the flow.
A pickup truck obscured her view of a trailing car, and as she pulled forward to turn left, she realized she was about to be hit. She braced herself before being plowed across the street and into the woods.
“I followed the rules,” said Miller, who was ultimately found at fault in the crash. “I was in the left turning lane, with my blinker on and everything. I just didn’t see.”
Miller is now able to walk again, thanks to two screws holding her pelvis together. And she’s pushing for change: She wants a school caution zone to be installed at the entrance, just like the zone marked on the other two entrances of the school, on Old Kings Road.
“I don’t want attention drawn to me,” she said. “I want to draw attention to the issue because I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I did.”
Super student
Miller’s father, Lamar Miller, is a mechanical engineer at a firm in Orlando. He has warned her about the dangers of debt. And before the accident, one of Miller’s classes at Daytona State was economics. She wrote papers on the national debt and on the impacts of unemployment.
“It’s very eye-opening,” she said. “I don’t want to be one of those people who are suffering. I have to push myself.”
At a young age, she made a goal to do well enough in school that she wouldn’t have to go into debt for college. Since middle school, she has had two B’s, and the rest have been A’s. Before the accident, she was on track to graduate with her high school diploma, her associate’s degree and most of the prerequisite courses for an engineering degree at her school of choice, the University of Central Florida.
But she’s not just in it for herself. She tutors other students. She works with the trainers for the football team.
“She’s well loved,” said Kathy Summerlot, a secretary in the guidance department at the school. “She’s a full dual-enrollment student, so the only time she comes on campus is to do community service and help around the school — and she’s here all the time. The whole family is very giving.”
A month before the accident, Miller was helping Summerlot with some clerical work when a family came into the office for orientation.
Along with the prospective student, there were three toddlers who were loud and causing a lot of distractions.
Miller didn’t wait for anyone to ask her to help.
“She suggested she take them into the conference room and entertain them during the meeting,” Summerlot said. “She had crayons and was coloring with them. It was amazing she had the foresight to do that. That’s how mature she is. If she’s not given something to do, she will always ask, ‘How can I help you?’”
Recovery zone
Hours after the crash, Miller was in the emergency room with her friend and her mother at her side.
“I don’t remember the ambulance ride,” she recalled. “But I was freaking out because I had three exams that day.”
One class was half online, so she had her friend read her the questions, and she gave the answers.
“I ended up scoring really poorly,” she said with a smile. “They had me on morphine.”
Her friends and family were supportive throughout the recovery process. Some friends wheeled her around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating. “They used me to get more candy,” she said.
The football team and other staff members around the school wore ribbons to support her. Friends came over and played charades with her to keep her spirits up.
Her mother, Suzanne Miller, is a homemaker and was able to care for Shelbie full time.
“I had to lift her, bathe her,” Suzanne Miller said. “This is a young lady who was on her own, almost. … We were cooped.”
There were times when Shelbie was crying because of the pain, and Suzanne was crying because she couldn’t help her. Then, Shelbie’s younger brother, L.J., saved the day.
“When she was feeling down, he came around the corner with his Nerf gun,” Suzanne Miller said.
Lighting the way
Because she was forced to drop her classes for the semester, Shelbie Miller won’t graduate with many prerequisites for her engineering degree, after all. But she’ll still get her associate’s degree along with her diploma, if all goes according to plan.
And she’s still motivated to make a change at that third entrance to the school, on Matanzas Woods Parkway.
The city hasn’t received a request yet, but City Manager Jim Landon said the city did decrease the speed limit on the parkway to 35 mph near the school two years ago. The city would have to follow industry standards if it wanted to add a flashing light and a school zone of 20 mph. Landon said he will be sure to have the city’s traffic engineer perform the necessary studies.
Mayor Jon Netts agreed. “If you have flashing lights on the front, why wouldn’t you on the side?” he said. “If it’s in accordance with the (Manual on Uniform Traffic Safety Devices), we’ll certainly do it.”
And if Shelbie Miller puts her mind to it, don’t bet against her.
In physical therapy, Miller progressed at lightning speed from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane and now, to walking on her own. Her reading material during her recovery might not come as a big surprise: SAT study books. “Debt-Free U,” a book about being a frugal college student. Vocabulary flash cards.
“I remember the first time I met her,” recalled Pat Trimmer, her guidance counselor. “I thought it was her parents who were pushing her to attend Daytona State College. My thought was, ‘Why don’t you just let her be a kid?’ It wasn’t until I got to know Shelbie on a personal level that I realized it’s Shelbie who drives herself. To this day, it still amazes me.”
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