An Atmore couple is lucky to be alive, after their truck was hit by a semi-truck Sunday on Alabama Highway 21, near Interstate 65.

Sharon McGhee said she and her husband, George, were riding in a “box” truck returning from Montgomery when a semi-truck carrying peanuts hit them, after trying to stop at the end of the interstate exit ramp.

“The driver said his brakes failed,” Sharon McGhee said.

McGhee said the collision tipped the smaller truck on its side and knocked the axle and wheels off the vehicle. She said the vehicle rolled onto the driver’s side, because she remembers hanging in the air by her seatbelt.

Sharon McGhee said she and her husband were both wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision and there were no major injuries.

“The [truck driver] complained that his knee hurt, but that was it,” she said. “We’re bruised and we’re sore, but we’re alive.”

McGhee is a retired teacher from Escambia County Middle School and said the truck driver was a former student.

Attempts to get an official report of the accident from Alabama State Troopers were unsuccessful, as of press time.