Raleigh, N.C. — Kristina Olive often sees deer on the side of the road when she does her early-morning newspaper deliveries.

"I've been doing it for three years, now. I've never hit a deer – I see thousands of them."

But around 4 a.m. Sunday, she did hit a deer – a six-point buck – that darted out in the road while she drove on White Oak Road, a rural road between Clayton and Garner.

Olive's car went off the road, went down an embankment and ended up in the woods against a tree. She was knocked unconscious, and when she awoke, she had a dead deer in the front seat of the car.

"The whole windshield was out. The deer was right there in the passenger seat," Olive said.

Authorities say if she had traveled a few more feet, she would have ended up on Interstate 40.

Because she couldn't open the doors or find her phone in the dark, Olive crawled into the back seat.

"My phone was ringing. It kept going off – there was this deer. And there were these two other deer looking at us from the outside of the car," she said. "I just wanted help."

For more than two hours, Olive was trapped until a passerby called 911 and a trooper arrived.

"I fell asleep. I had blood all over me," she said. "I was hurt."

Olive's husband, Monty Olive, rushed to the hospital. His wife had cuts all over her face, a broken collar bone, and two broken ankles.

But she was alive.

"The Lord was looking after her. He really was," Monty Olive said. "She had a an angel riding with her."

Olive is still being treated at WakeMed but hopes to be released soon. Her doctor says she will be on crutches for several months but that she should make a complete recovery.

She has not decided whether she will return to her job.