Give Us Your Best Shot

The Turners on Chinoe Drive are the best in Lexington, KY when it comes to Christmas lights. Let's see what ya got. Email it to jmwest47@gmail.com and I'll post it. There will be fewer lights burning bright this year at the Turner family's annual holiday display outside their home. But inside, the family battered and bruised will all be accounted for. Ron Turner was badly hurt Sept. 19 in the crash of a private plane that also seriously injured his son, Daren Turner. The accident occurred when Turner's plane ran out of gas less than a mile from the Chattanooga, Tenn., airport. No one was killed.
"Actually, they thought I was dead," Ron Turner said. He broke ribs, collarbone and vertebrae; injured his chest and lungs; and suffered a concussion. Turner says the injuries will keep him from putting up the family's usual light show: Santa Claus with sleigh, a Nativity scene and 55,000 colored lights. "I can't go to the magnitude I did in the past," said Turner, founder and chairman of Amteck of Kentucky, an engineering and electrical contracting company, and Turner Development. "I have 59 screws and seven steel plates inside me," he said. Daren Turner suffered broken lower vertebrae, and he still wears a back brace and has limited movement. The Turners have been lighting up their house for 25 seasons, and the display has become more elaborate in the last few years. This year, Turner says he will cut back to 30,000 colored lights, along with the usual 20 floodlights. "It's hard on both of us," said Ron Turner's wife, Linda. "We feel we're letting down the community. We hope they will understand." They will continue to donate gifts to needy children, they said.
The Turners said they have been overwhelmed by cards and flowers they have received since the plane crash.
"Perhaps next year we can go back to the way it was before," Ron Turner said. "That's my hope and prayer."Merry Christmas!