LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- Residents on one Lake County road say it's a 'suicide mission' to cross the street, and one woman is living proof of the danger. 

  • Woman fighting to make Lakeshore Dr. safer
  • Elodie Samanos hit by car near her home
  • Lake County commissioner helping her make changes

Elodie Samanos says it's not easy to think about a time when doctors didn't think she would survive, and if she did, she would be confined to a wheelchair. 

"Magician, this guy. This surgeon is magic. (He) not only saved my life … but he saved my legs. It's still hard, and now (it’s) seven years," Samanos said.

Samanos and her husband live on Lakeshore Drive in between Hammock Ridge Road and Hooks Street. 

She said in Dec. 2011, she was crossing the street after feeding the ducks on her lakefront property, when a car hit her. 

"I was almost arrived, almost finished my journey and coming from nowhere I don't know, I didn’t even see the guy, and pew … my life was over," she said. 

"(He left) me on the middle of the road after (a) 200 feet projection. Shoes were there, the glass was there completely squashed, and he left me on my blood over there, and that's it," Samanos added.

Samanos says she spent three Christmases in the hospital and underwent operations for several years until she could start rehabilitation. ​

"I cannot not run. If I go on the floor, I cannot get up by myself -- very difficult," she said. 

Samanos walks with the help of a cane and is​ now fighting for road changes. 

Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks is helping her with that fight. He says the county is looking at adding sidewalks, some crosswalks and reducing the speed to 30 mph.

"We have a lot of residents up and down Lakeshore Drive that have complained about speeding and are not able to cross over. We have a lot of cyclists that still use this road," Parks said. 

Samanos says many drivers use the road as a short cut to get to and from Highway 27. ​

She and her husband won't cross the road and has the scars from her accident as a reminder of why. 

"It's like a suicide mission here when you want to cross the street, which is not normal. You don’t have to live like that," she said.

Commissioner Parks says the project is on the five-year list of priority projects, which get funded eventually through a safety grant or Department of Transportation money. 

He says the speed limit may be lowered within the next year if commissioners approve.