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Julia Barr Recovering From Car Accident

Julia Barr JPI LARGE

"I'm very lucky," says Julia Barr (Brooke, AMC) of escaping a recent car accident with only a damaged hand. "It could have been a lot worse."

Indeed. "It was a freak accident," she reports. "I was driving and there were what I thought two double-parked cars on my right and I saw nobody was coming from the opposite direction so I started to go around so I could continue on going South and as I got up next to the first car, I see that it is starting to turn into me. The driver didn't see me. Somewhere in between my passenger side and the front wheel is where the impact came and I turned my wheel to the left to avoid her and all of a sudden, I realize that I'm rolling over. I had my air bag on, so that was good. I don't remember the window breaking, but it obviously did, because that's where the lacerations and injury came from, but I didn't lose consciousness and all these people gathered around me to help and I actually sort of slowly backed out and got out of the back of the car. They sat me down and my hand looked really bad and somebody gave me something to wrap around it and gave me their phone so I could call Richie [Hirschlag, her husband], and the police were there very quickly. I was taken to the nearest trauma center to rule out any damage that isn't obvious, and I was very lucid. I was surprised by how calm I was, and I didn't cry. They had pumped some morphine into me and someone came into the room at the hospital and said, ‘You're remarkably composed.' I said, ‘Well, I've got a lot of drugs in me [laughs!]' " A little over a week later, "My hand is still in a type of cast to protect the three fingers that were injured, but things are progressing. It's not great, and I've had to withdraw from doing the Tribute To Pine Valley, but I will get better. It just takes a little while."

The actress remains in good spirits, thankfully. "Every so often I get a vision of the accident and I think, 'That was just weird,' " she sighs. "It was just so bizarre to all of a sudden realize, 'Oh, my God, my car is turning over!' It's a bummer, but I just consider myself very lucky, and I am feeling much, much more comfortable than I was when it first happened." And Barr is greatly relieved that Darnell Williams (Jesse) will be filling in for her at the Tribute to Pine Valley on October 25, 26 and 27. "Whatever the reason may be, you don't want to leave someone in the lurch, or disappoint the fans, so I'm very glad Darnell will be there. If I'm feeling better, I may pop in and make an appearance," she says, "but it's too soon for me to think about that."

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