Feb. 20, 2010

Car accident changes DWU students’ outlook on life

Leah Rado • The Daily Republic

Dakota Wesleyan athlete Derek Washington, right, tears up as he listens to friend and teammate Ryan Wagner describes finding Washington in the ditch after a rollover accident Tuesday morning in western Minnesota. Washington and Wagner are both a part of the DWU football team and cheerleading squad. (Laura Wehde/Republic)

When the Dakota Wesleyan University cheerleaders take the floor at the Corn Palace today against Hastings College, two members of the squad have more to cheer about than Wesleyan’s recent Great Plains Athletic Conference men’s basketball championship.

They will be cheering for life.

Ryan Wagner and Derek Washington, Wesleyan juniors and members of both the school’s football team and the basketball cheerleading squad, were on their way home from a weekend in Mankato, Minn., Tuesday morning when the Trailblazer Washington was driving hit a patch of ice.

In Minnesota to visit friends, their trip home nearly took a tragic turn. As they prepare for today’s game, they say it’s been difficult not to think about the events that could have cost them their lives.

The group, which included Wagner, Washington, football player Tyler Peterson and Ibrahim Gabon, Washington’s friend from Sioux Falls, had planned to drive to Mitchell Monday, but stayed an extra night to avoid bad weather that hit western Minnesota. The winter storm had passed by the time the four left Mankato Tuesday morning, but snow and ice still covered the roads.

“I fishtailed to the right and I got it corrected, but I kept fishtailing too much to the left,” Washington said. “I felt the car roll and after that is when I ended up blacking out. The next thing I remember was waking up in the ambulance.”

Wagner had just fallen asleep in the backseat when he heard Peterson shout as the car began to swerve on the icy road east of Windom, Minn. He remembers the first of the four rolls, and then taking stock of the situation after the SUV landed back on its tires.

“I saw two of the guys and I yelled ‘Where’s (Washington)? Where’s D.W.?’ ” Wagner said. “We jumped out of the car and looked around. The first thing we did was look under the car and he wasn’t there. We looked in the median, he wasn’t there. We came around the back side (of the vehicle) and saw him laying in the ditch face first.

“The first thing that came to my mind was ‘No, no, he can’t be dead.’ ”

Washington had been thrown from the vehicle, out of the driver’s side window. He and Peterson were transported via ambulance to the hospital in Windom, where they were released after tests and X-rays.

Washington suffered a concussion and still has lower back pain, but other than that and an assortment of bumps and bruises, all four of the men — none of whom was wearing their seat belts — were fine.

“I was thankful,” Washington said. “My biggest concern when I finally woke up was that the other guys were OK. I didn’t feel anything too bad so my biggest concern was the other guys. I’m just thankful someone was watching over us.”

Wagner and Washington will both take the floor to cheer for the Tiger men and women today, but there will be no stunts performed, no tossing the female cheerleaders in the air.

“Everything I’ve gone through so far, everything I’ve been through with my family, it’s like, what happens if I missed these moments?” Washington said. “I love cheering and getting the crowd worked up and I might not have been able to do that anymore.”

Along with a new appreciation for being able to do the simple, everyday things in life, both men said they will never get in a car without wearing a seat belt again. Both also have a renewed sense of faith.

Wagner said that’s something that shouldn’t have taken a near-death experience to achieve.

“We all definitely know that God is there; people were definitely watching over us,” Wagner said. “Just because something crazy happens and we have a miracle happen and we come out of it, I don’t think people now should just start saying prayers. It’s a full deal. God’s always there with you.

“You just can’t start getting close to God once something happens. You have to stick with Him.”

Washington was told he was lucky to be alive after being thrown from the vehicle. He wants people to understand exactly how precious life is.

“You cherish things a lot more,” he said. “You don’t realize what you have until you actually experience something (like this). It brings you closer to God, closer to yourself. You don’t take someone for granted.

“Just cherish what you have. Be thankful and do everything that you can to the fullest.”

Jerry Luckett, head cheerleading coach at Dakota Wesleyan, said she thinks Wagner and Washington’s experience is part of a bigger plan.

“I think it was a lesson for more than just them,” she said. “It affected them, but that trickle-down effect affected a lot of people and a lot of people cherish life now.

“Whatever’s meant to be for them is pretty special. I told Derek, ‘I don’t know what God’s plan is for you, but it’s something very major for what you went through and you’re with us.’ We step on that floor this weekend and man, are we celebrating life.”