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Crash Survivor Begins A Life Without Mom

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: January 30, 2009

TAMPA - With her head bandaged in gauze, Summer Moll waved at her grandmother, father and reporters Thursday like a movie star in a limousine instead of a toddler in a car seat.

Summer, who turns 5 on Monday, was injured four months ago in a head-on crash on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway that killed her mother, Jennifer O'Boyle.

After enduring multiple operations, casts on her arms, a brace on her neck and pins in both legs, she walked out of Tampa General Hospital on Thursday full of smiles.

"We're ready to go home and be in a real bed. Be with her friends. Try to start a real life," said her maternal grandmother, Tammy Rosian.

"From Day One to now ... it's amazing," said Summer's father, Joshua Moll. "God's blessed us a lot."

Cheryl Maria Riemann, 25, of Ruskin is charged with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the Sept. 10 wreck. Investigators say Riemann was driving the wrong way on the lower portion of the expressway just east of the 78th Street toll plaza when she crashed into O'Boyle's vehicle.

Riemann's blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the level at which Florida law presumes intoxication, investigators say. She remains at Orient Road Jail with no bail set.

Summer already had been home with her grandparents but returned to the hospital for additional treatment Dec. 15.

Summer often talks about her mother being in her heart, but "I don't think she actually knows she's gone forever," Rosian said.

Now that Summer is stronger, the family has plenty of fun activities planned, such as a visit to the NFL Experience this week and Walt Disney World in February. The little girl also has two new playmates, a red terrier and a Maltese donated by the Humane Society and a local resident, Rosian said.

Everyone who loves her is eager for some family time together, Rosian said. "It's been a long time, and it's long overdue."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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