Students reflect on crash

The five basketball players and wrestler who were involved in a serious car crash a couple of weeks ago have all returned home and started the recovery process.

 Adam Kay, Aaron Morse, Aaron Lowman, Daylon Kuhl, Billy Smith and Spud Crabb were headed home on Feb. 19 after an evening full of activity.

The boys were in Hamilton for the girls’ game against Valley Christian at the District 6-B Tournament. After the girls won, the boys stayed to watch the boys’ Valley Christian-Deer Lodge game. The boys were at Dairy Queen visiting with Cheryl Crabb, Spud’s mom, and Patty Morse, when they decided they should probably head out.

“We could see that it was getting bad out,” Lowman said. “It was snowing pretty hard and the wind was picking up. It was just bad.”

The boys headed north up Highway 93.

“We had texted them to tell them to slow down and they said that they were,” Patty said.

The boys said that they were just talking and laughing before it happened.

“We were just all sitting there and next thing you know there was a truck coming right at us,” Lowman said.

The driver of the pickup truck, heading south, was traveling too fast for the road conditions when the vehicle lost control and crossed into the northbound lanes.

“I just closed my eyes,” Smith said.

Aaron Morse was driving the SUV that the boys were riding in when he saw the truck coming toward them.

“I knew we were going to hit one way or another,” he said.

Morse said that he and his dad have talked before about what you should do in those types of situations.

“I knew since it was a truck, I wanted to aim for the back where it was not as heavy,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure at least everybody got out of there with no serious conditions.”

He said that everything was moving slow as he tried to make his decision. If the SUV hadn’t hit the truck like it had, there’s a possibility that a couple of the boys would have been killed.

“If he hadn’t swerved like he had,” Patty said, “it would have been a lot worse.”

After the impact, the vehicle sat on the side of the road and the boys said they worried that they might get hit again by another car. Cheryl and Patty were following behind by a few minutes. Cheryl said that they got a call and all they could hear was screaming and hollering, saying “get us out.”

“I thought they might be teasing or joking,” Cheryl said.

But Patty said that she knew they “wouldn’t joke about something like that.”

Once crews had arrived, the kids were taken to the hospital by ambulance. Because of his history with cancer, Morse was separated from the group and taken to St. Pat’s.

“Everyone was taken to the same hospital except me,” he said. “I was over in no man’s land.”

As they were all taken to the hospital, treated, and even at the scene, each of the boys was more worried about their friends than themselves. In the hospital, Billy and Lowman argued with the nurse about being separated.

“They were going to move Billy, but Aaron (Lowman) threw such a fit,” Billy’s mother Janet said.

Now that they are all back home, the recovery process has begun, which has slowed down their everyday lives.

“It’s irritating,” Lowman said. “We can’t do anything. Some of us are going to miss track.”

Kay, Lowman and Smith won’t be able to participate when it’s time for track in a couple of weeks. Smith injured his leg pretty severely. He broke his tibia and a wound that went down to the bone.

“I had this big hole in my leg so it sort of had to have a few stitches,” Smith said, being modest, as his friends pointed out that there were certainly more than a few stitches put in.

Morse had some bleeding around his spleen. Kay had a compressed back and “just a sprained hand.” Lowman got out with a broken radius, a broken growth plate, fractures in his hand and dislocated fingers. He said he also has to have his hip checked out.

“I just hope the roads are clear so we can go to doctor,” Lowman said. “We tried going to the doctor the other day and we were slipping around and we made it to Lolo and back. I didn’t like being in the car.”

Spud had some bruising and burnt skin, but was otherwise in the best shape out of the six of them. Kuhl also had a lot of bruising, including a bruised lung. All six said that the event has drawn them closer together and really made them think.

“I’m a way better driver now,” Kay said.

Their parents are just happy that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

“Thankful,” Janet said. “Very thankful. They are all sitting here smiling. Sometimes moaning and groaning.”

Cheryl said that she’s not sure everyone realizes how far their story has traveled. They heard from a teacher in Wyoming that used to teach here and a friend in Seattle.

“People are just so thrilled that so many kids can be in an accident like that and come out,” Cheryl sad.

“And they weren’t drinking or doing drugs,” Patty added. “They were being good kids. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”