BEAUMONT, Texas — A near-death experience has turned into a life lesson for a Sour Lake teen.
On Saturday, April 4, 2023, Max Vaglica, 18, was ran over by a truck while loading mulch into cars at Lowe's on Dowlen Road in Beaumont.
"I'm standing by this pallet of mulch, it's like half a pallet, and I hear this really loud tire screech, and I look to my right and I see this big red truck coming straight at me," Vaglica said,
It was one of those moments where Vaglica says, his life flashed before his eyes.
"It was like I couldn't believe it. I just kind of froze," he said.
The teen was only in his first week working at the home improvement store when the accident happened.
"Definitely the half pallet of mulch, if that wasn't there it would have been way worse," Vaglica said.
His dad, Joe Vaglica, also credits "the big guy in the sky" for sparing his son's life.
Thankfully, Max Vaglica went home that day with only some bumps, bruises and soreness.
"They had me on crutches for a day, and the next day I could basically just walk on it," Max Vaglica said.
Max Vaglica did more than walk on it. Just 42 hours later, he was back in uniform on the job.
"A day and a half later he's back at work, that's what everyone was stunned about," Joe Vaglica said.
Joe Vaglica says he raised his kids to have a strong work ethic, but he didn't expect his son to return to work so quickly.
"I was like are you sure? You sure you want to work? It's been 40 hours man. Just, the reception he got, everyone was shaking his hand hugging him, stunned, like, you're back at work are you kidding me?" Joe Vaglica said.
For Max Vaglica, it was the reason he got the job in the first place.
"I just, I want to seem, someone you can depend on, someone that's reliable, someone you can depend on all the time. I want people to depend on me," he said.
As for the driver, the family doesn't know what will happen next and they aren't pointing any fingers.
Joe Vaglica says this is simply just another teaching moment.
"Everything you get you earn, we don't want anything free, we don't want anything handed to us, so we're not suing anybody," he said. "It's an accident it wasn't on purpose, it happened at work, and as soon as he was able to function, he went back to work."
Max Vaglica went back to work with a swollen foot, but he fought through it.
The Vaglica's say the staff at Lowe's in Beaumont has been extremely supportive.
12News reached out to Lowe's corporate office to see if they had a comment on the incident, but we didn't hear back in time for this publication.