I think I have a good guardian angel
Published: November 24, 2005
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie Rodgers of Lakeland is pleased with her spiritual companion.
“I think I have a good guardian angel,” she said, days after the head-on collision that left her car mangled beyond recognition — among the worst ever to be towed to Armory Shell in Virginia. [Where Angels Walk]
Passersby to the crash on Highway 135 near Virginia — including Minnesota State Patrol Sgt. Mike Flatley — were sure the evening of Nov. 17 had ended in tragedy for anyone inside the car.
“It didn’t look like anyone could have survived,” said Flatley, who happened to be driving by the accident just east of the St. Louis County Garage and 911 dispatch center.
But only minutes after the accident around 9:20 p.m. Stephanie was safe outside the car, having crawled around the shattered steering column and out through the back seat door.
The driver of the other car, 21-year-old Zachary Richard Limanen of Eveleth, who had been drinking, also escaped serious injury.
Days after the wreck, Stephanie was back to her daily life of going to school and working at Herberger’s. But not without reflecting on what could have been the end of her young life — and what surely would have fatally harmed her good friend, who was almost a passenger in her car.
Stephanie was heading home last Thursday, after an evening of Bible study with friends in Virginia.
Not long after turning onto eastbound Highway 135, she noticed that “a car was coming straight at me. I saw the headlights, but I never saw the driver or the car.”
The impact “happened really fast,” she said. “It stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t have time to swerve.”
Stephanie found herself nearly trapped in the 1994 Oldsmobile 88 Royal. Both airbags had deployed. The entire front of the vehicle was crushed right up to the front wheels, with the crumpled hood blocking view from the splintered windshield.
The glove compartment was pushed within inches of the front passenger seat. Stephanie’s friend, Tina Howell of Lakeland, was originally going to ride home with her, “but it didn’t work out.” With the damage, its doubtful a passenger could have survived, she said.
Stephanie couldn’t open the driver’s side door, but there was just enough room around her — and she was just petite enough — to maneuver into the back seat and out the back door, which was rammed open.
Later, an employee at Armory Shell told her he’d “only seen one car worse” than hers, she said.
Stephanie called her mother on her cell phone, and her parents, Roxanne and Larry Rodgers, were soon on their way.
“She said she had been in an accident. She was very calm and collected,” Roxanne Rodgers said. “We didn’t begin to get the magnitude of the car accident.”
Passengers of other vehicles who had stopped looked after Stephanie and provided her with a warm place to wait until law enforcement and emergency vehicles arrived.
As her parents approached the scene, her father commented, “that can’t be Stephie’s car,” Roxanne Rodgers said. “When I saw her I just wanted to hug and hug her.” Stephanie’s face was swollen and she said her face, hands, and legs hurt, but her main concern was for the driver of the other vehicle, her mother said. “She was afraid he had died.”
It was snowing at the time of the accident, and Stephanie, who had been driving under the posted 55 mph speed limit, initially thought the other driver lost control of the car due to slippery roads, she said. His Pontiac was also in bad condition, with the hood pushed upward.
Limanen had been drinking and a blood alcohol test was taken, but results have not yet been determined, according to a trooper with the Minnesota State Patrol.
Stephanie and Limanen were transported to the Virginia Regional Medical Center in the same ambulance, with Stephanie riding in the front seat.
In the emergency room, “I couldn’t look at her without getting tears in my eyes, just thanking God she was alive,” Roxanne Rodgers said.
Stephanie was treated with medication for a punctured shin and released. She was anxious to leave the hospital, she said. “I’m fine,” she said, a few days after the accident. Limanen, according to the State Patrol, was held for observation.
His actions were “stupid,” Stephanie said. But “I feel bad for him. Everybody does stupid stuff.” Though he was not seriously injured, he was in worse shape than she was and in trouble with the law, she said. “I hope he learns from this.” However, “he has to make that decision on his own.”
“I can’t say that we feel anger toward him,” her mother said. “Our main emotion has been of thanksgiving.” [Radical Forgiveness, Making Room for the Miracle]
The accident has been a reinforcement of the kindness of others, Roxanne said. “People were so good to us.” It’s also served as a lesson of the importance of wearing a seat belt, she said. Being buckled in may have “saved my life,” Stephanie said.
Seat belt enforcement is something the Minnesota State Patrol, St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, and law enforcement agencies statewide will be focusing on this Thanksgiving weekend as part of a Safe & Sober campaign.
Last year in Minnesota, 13 motorists were killed during the Thanksgiving holiday Nov. 21 to 27, with five of those not wearing seat belts, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
“Each year Thanksgiving turns tragic, and that means empty chairs around the dinner table,” Sgt. Flatley said.
“We’re trying to hammer home the point” of importance of wearing seat belts, said Sgt. Wade Rasch of the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department.
Seat belt use is at 84 percent in Minnesota, he said. Enforcement is aimed at the last few percent of people who don’t wear seat belts,” especially those who will only buckle up with the threat of receiving a seat belt ticket, which costs $99 in St. Louis County.
“So many people are traveling to see friends and relatives” during the holidays, upping the significance of careful and sober driving, Rasch said.
Safe driving means not drinking and driving, slowing down, pulling over in order to make cell phone calls, and carrying a survival kit in all vehicles, according to the Sheriff’s Office and State Patrol. The posted speed limit may not be legal to drive if the weather conditions are poor, according to a spokesman from the State Patrol.
“Allow plenty of time,” Sgt. Flatley said. Not feeling rushed also leads to less road rage, he said.
Stephanie said she realizes how fortunate she was a week ago today. “I could have been dead.”
She took time off from classes and her job the day after the crash. But by Saturday she was ready for work.
Roxanne Rodgers said it was difficult to let her get into another vehicle. “My motherly instinct was to take her and hold her and not let her go.”
“I’ve been thinking about my life and how I’m going to spend it,” Stephanie said. “God still has a plan for me.” [The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?]
And for that, her family is most thankful.
“It’s going to be a wonderful Thanksgiving,” said her mother.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: