Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ? Eighty-five-year-old Tillie Tooter got an apology in court Wednesday for the hit-and-run accident that left her trapped in a mosquito-infested swamp for three days. She wished the young motorist luck and urged him to “learn to lead a better life.”

Scott Campbell, 23, was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to reimburse the woman’s medical expenses from the August 2000 accident.

A judge had delayed the sentencing a day to give Tooter time to travel from Philadelphia to hear Campbell’s apology, which was required under his plea bargain with prosecutors.

“I’d like to tell you from the bottom of my heart that I’m truly sorry for the ordeal you went through. I feel very remorseful,” Campbell said.

Tooter re-sponded: “I feel deeply sorry for your mother be-cause I know you must have hurt her. I have no ill feelings towards you. I just hope you will make a good life for yourself.”

Tooter was driving her Toyota Tercel to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport to pick up a relative early in the morning when Campbell’s car hit her from behind, pushing her car off a bridge and into a tangle of trees that held her suspended above the water of a swamp.

Campbell, who according to his lawyer had become drowsy at the wheel, stopped on the highway and called police. But he did not tell anyone that a car had gone over the wall.

To get through the three-day ordeal, Tooter sucked on a cough drop and a peppermint and chewed a piece of gum. She absorbed rainwater with golf socks and sucked on them to avoid dehydration.

She was finally rescued when a teen-ager picking up trash glanced over the bridge railing and saw her looking up at him.