"It's a miracle that I'm still here. I just thank God that he protected us," she told Eyewitness News. "As soon as I saw the truck getting ready to fall on top of us I thought, 'This will be my last breath I ever breathe.'"
Amazingly it wasn't - even though the huge truck crushed their Honda Civic almost flat to the ground.
"The roof was pretty much on top of me so I couldn't move, but I saw the Chad's airbag so I was concerned about him," said Kara.
It turned out Chad wasn't badly hurt, and was quickly pulled out and rushed to the hospital. But while he was treated at WakeMed's emergency room, he had the surreal experience of seeing a live television news report about the crash and the fact that his wife was still pinned in the car.
"The next little bay over, they had the television on the news. And, it was talking about an accident involving a dump truck and a car, and how the lady who was, you know, my wife was stilled pinned inside. It was just - I had to ask them, the chaplain and the nurses, asked them to please turn the volume down a little bit because it was just too much for me to listen to," Chad explained.
It took emergency two hours to carefully lift the truck off the crushed car. What TV viewers couldn't see was paramedic Lisa Plunkett inside calming Kara and tending to her medical needs.
"There's not enough words to thank her - to show how much I really appreciate how much she did for me," she said.
As for the man behind the wheel of the truck who's been charged with reckless driving, the Benton's say they can't be angry. They're too grateful to be alive.
