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Monday, October 1, 2007
Crash Renews Clarks’ Faith In Community
Western Arkansas, AR
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By: Mike Capshaw
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Photo(s) By: Tom Ewart
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On a hot July afternoon in 2000, the Elkins junior receiver sat in the back of his family’s van with his brother, Mitchell, beside him and his mother, Carla, in the passenger’s seat. Behind the wheel was Drew’s father and Elkins coach Aaron Clark. It was the second day of the family’s vacation trip to Disney World in Orlando, but about eight hours from their destination, things took a turn for the worse.
Make that two turns and four rolls — the result of the van being clipped from behind at 70 mph.
Aaron, a long-time bus driver who always monitored the rearview mirrors, noticed a car in the midst of a wild ride behind himapproaching from behind. The car weaved back and forth across the three-lane, north Atlanta interstate as it approached the Clark’s van.
“Carla remembers me saying, ‘Everybody hold on,’ because I could tell we were going to get hit,” Aaron said. “I’m sure it happened extremely fast, but for years, that whole process seemed like 30 minutes.”
The van came to a rest upside down. Aaron and Carla were both buckled in and Carla was the first to get free and quickly crawled through the van to check on her sons. Mitchell was there with burns on his arms from the seatbelt, an 8-10 inch cut on top of his head and numerous other cuts from flying glass.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, Carla saw Drew lying on the pavement and rushed to his aid. In the meantime, Aaron had worked himself free and promptly unlatched Mitchell from his seatbelt, catching him as he fell out. Aaron held on to Mitchell, who was 5-years-old at the time, while Carla tried to comfort Drew.
“Drew was gasping for air, but it was more like a gurgling sound,” Aaron said. “Anybody that has watched TV knows that usually means they have blood in their throat … I can still hear it today.”
Blood flowed out of about a 1/2-inch puncture wound on Drew’s back. He was covered by cuts, including severe injuries to his head and forearm. He was wearing a seatbelt — proof by the burn on his stomach. It apparently failed during the collision, but may have saved his life.
“We were headed for vacation for a week, so we had a 12-inch TV for the kids to watch movies and a little refrigerator for drinks,” Aaron said. “Those things were all in there, so had he not flew out, the TV or refrigerator might have hit him.
“We felt it was God protecting him … getting knocked out of the vehicle saved him.”
Aaron and Carla also were in need of medical attention, but nothing as serious as their sons who were taken away in the first ambulances to arrive at the scene. Aaron and Carla then spent six grueling hours separated from their sons as they were sent to different hospitals.
Mitchell had lots of burns and cuts, but his arms weren’t broken as originally feared. Drew had bleeding on the brain, multiple skull fractures and ended up with more than 100 stitches. The doctor thought Drew might need surgery, but decided to take a “wait and see” approach.
All this was being relayed to Aaron and Carla by state troopers. Once they were released and found out their sons were stable, the Clarks had to make one of the toughest decisions of their lives.
“The state trooper said that if we didn’t get all of our possessions (out of the van), then we may never get them,” Aaron said. “It was 30-minutes out of the way, but my wife’s purse and wallet with all her credit cards and IDs were there, so we went by very quickly, got what we needed and left everything else behind.”
They were instructed not to touch anything that was wet or soiled in the van. When an accident occurs, debris is thrown into whichever vehicle is closest in an effort to clear the scene as quickly as possible.
As it turns out, the Clarks learned the guy who crashed into them was drunk and on drugs. He also was HIV positive, so anything that was wet could have been tainted blood from the guy.
When they arrived at the hospital, they went to see Drew first because his injuries were the most critical.
“His temples and his eyes and everything were swollen to the point where he looked like a ball,” Aaron said. “It was extremely disheartening for a parent to see their child like that.”
Mitchell also was in a lot of pain and ended up receiving 200 stitches. The burns on his arms meant he had to take hot baths to have the wound scraped each day to prevent infection. Drew turned out to be OK, and didn’t require surgery.
Because it was during the All-Star break, Aaron hoped his sons might win a visit from an Atlanta Braves player after talking with a guy in the waiting room who claimed to “know people.” Instead, the guy showed up with baseballs autographed by Hank Aaron for Drew and Mitchell.
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