If you have been hurt in a car accident on Highway 24, Arendell Street, or anywhere between Morehead City and Atlantic Beach, you already know something the rest of the state is just catching up to: this isn’t the same traffic it used to be.

I grew up here. I remember when Highway 24 was busy, but not like the racetrack it is today. Arendell Street used to be calm to drive through town on, now it’s bottlenecked, and people are flying through it well past the speed limit. And if you’ve ever tried to turn out of a marina or shopping area onto Hwy 58 in Atlantic Beac during the summer, you know it can take two or three light cycles just to get a break in traffic.

Summer makes all of it worse. The Atlantic Beach bridge backs up, traffic crawls from the bridge down through Pine Knoll Shores or Fort Macon, and what should be a ten-minute drive turns into forty. More cars, more tourists who don’t know the roads, more distracted driving… and more wrecks.

If you were unfortunately hurt in one of them, you’re probably dealing with all of it at once – mounting medical bills, an insurance adjuster who’s already called, a damaged vehicle, and no clear idea what happens next.

That’s where I come in.

I’m Lila Swann. I help people across Carteret County figure out what to do after a wreck, without an office visit, without a phone tree, and without getting passed around to a case manager. You talk to me. From the first call to the last, that doesn’t change.