A woman who ran into a grandmother in a small Ohio town said she was driving erratically because she was praying.

Police originally thought that Marilyn Perry, now 63, of Lindsey, may have been her cell phone or drunk when she crashed into Pamela Beckham, 50, while driving in downtown Bellevue last year.

Beckham, who was helping her grandchildren get out of a car in front of a public library at the time, suffered a broken neck in the accident.

Perry says that she had been praying to God for help with her personal problems.

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Marilyn Perry, now 63, said that she ran into a woman outside a library with her car because she was praying at the time

Pamela Beckham, 50, suffered a broken neck during the accident, when she was helping her grandchildren get out of a car

She was initially charged with operating a vehicle while impaired but no alcohol was found in her system and an investigation showed she was not using her phone.

Police were also not able to isolate a particular drug that influenced her driving.

Despite claiming that she was praying, the driver was accepted into a substance abuse program on Thursday after applying for intervention.

She had asked for the option after pleading guilty to a subsequent vehicular assault charge, according to the Bellevue Gazette.

Perry was also given three years' probation and ordered to pay Beckham up to $10,000 in restitution for medical bills.

Police originally thought that the driver may have been on her cell phone or drunk, but an investigation revealed otherwise. Above, Perry is seen in her car right after the crash

'I don’t believe that for a second, because church-going people are better people than that,' Beckham's husband said of Perry's claim. Above, the scene of the accident

A police officer said that nothing about praying was said in the immediate aftermath of the accident and the victim's husband Darl said that he thought the driver's claims about praying weren't true.

''I don’t believe that for a second, because church-going people are better people than that,' he told Fox 8.

'For one, they would have made some sort of attempt to at least see if she was okay, or something; they never have'.