Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins recalls 1993 Thanksgiving Day wreck that almost killed him

DALLAS - Thanksgiving has a special meaning for Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.

Twenty-six years ago, Jenkins was in a bad crash that nearly took his life.

The layers of the story make up a miraculous event that changed the long-time politician's outlook on life.

Like most people, Jenkins said ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ over the years, but he had to learn what it really meant.

Jenkins did on Thanksgiving in 1993 when an unexpected snow, sleet and ice storm socked North Texas. It was a Thanksgiving that is a frozen memory for many.

It was the coldest Thanksgiving Day ever in North Texas. The first time snow and ice fell during an NFL game in Dallas when Leon Lett slid into the football after a blocked field goal, giving Miami the ball on the Cowboys three and ultimately the game.

Roads became roller rinks.

People moving around for Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends were sidelined by car crashes too many to count.

“On Thanksgiving Day 1993, I was involved in an automobile accident,” the judge said.

A mangled mesh of a convertible Cadillac was all that was left of what then-29-year-old Clay Jenkins was driving. The crash put in a coma for four days.

“That caused me to have a closed head injury, a broken neck, a broken pelvis, broken ribs and massive internal injuries,” he said. “Doctors said I wouldn't live. But by the Grace of God, I did live.”

It’s a story Jenkins has only shared with once with the 700 Club in 1994 — until now.

“About three months before this accident, I was in a place I shouldn't have been. Doing a thing I shouldn't have done. And I stopped doing it.,” Jenkins said. “I just stopped and said a prayer. I said, ‘God, I know we're not close. I know why we're not close. And I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry about that.’ It wasn't a prayer of repentance. It was a mixed up prayer of shame and guilt.”

Then, the accident happened.

“My life flashed before me. I saw everything: the good, the bad, the ugly. Not so much the things that we bang ourselves over the head in guilt or the things that we pride ourselves on, but the things that we may have not even thought about. And then I was just overwhelmed by a sense of love and acceptance,” Jenkins recalled. “My prayer for my fellow man is they would have that understanding of God’s love and grace without the need to break their neck in a car wreck.”

Jenkins smiles now. He had to regain his strength and learned to walk again. What almost killed him saved him.

“My life was spared. It definitely changed my view of who God is, of what our relationship with God is,” he said. “It really changed the trajectory of my life.”
It left Jenkins with a concern for the suffering of others and a perspective that brings peace

“It doesn't have to be the same thing. But having been in a situation of despair and seeing other people in a situation of despair gives you a strong desire to help those folks,” he said. “There’s a faith that what is happening today is not the fin ultimate thing. And when I look at my earthly walk, this ain’t my toughest day. I’ve had my toughest day.”

Each Thanksgiving, Jenkins calls the friends who surrounded him with their faith while he lay between life and death.

“To say how thankful I am for them,” he said. “And then I reflect on how thankful I am for all the blessings God’s given me since then: for my family, for this job and for the ability to work for the people of Dallas County.”