Model Niki Taylor remains in critical condition after a weekend car crash left her with severe internal injuries. Her injuries “were life threatening and remain that way,” says Dr Jeffrey Nicholas, who is treating Niki at an Atlanta hospital.
The 26-year-old beauty was a passenger in a vehicle that crashed into an electricity pylon in Georgia early Sunday morning. “Everyone felt she was okay, and then she had severe stomach pains,” her publicist said. “There was no head injury, no facial lacerations. It was all internal trauma.” Doctors say she suffered serious liver damage. Her older sister, Joelle Bolline, said that Niki has been awake briefly since the accident, and has nodded and squeezed relatives’ hands, but she is not yet able to speak.
Driver James Renegar, 27, an old friend of Niki’s, told police he lost control of the vehicle after looking down to answer his ringing mobile phone. He and passenger John Lack, 30, were treated but released the same day. Officers do not believe drugs and alcohol played a role in the accident.
Niki, mother of six-year-old twins Jake and Hunter, was visiting friends in Atlanta and planned to return home to Florida to begin acting lessons.
This is not the first tragedy to befall the Taylor family. Niki’s younger sister Krissy, also a well known model, died in 1995 at the age of 17 from an asthma attack.
Niki shot to stardom on the cover of magazines including Seventeen and Elle and has appeared in popular adverts for Cover Girl and Liz Claiborne, as well as the famed Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
