Nine Gustavus students were on their way to Panama City, Florida for Spring Break when a driver going the wrong direction down the highway hit one of the two cars they were driving as they were going through Illinios. The crash happened at about 10:30 p.m. on Mar. 30 as the students were continuing to Florida after switching a vehicle in Oregon, Wisconsin at Ceder’s parents house.

Adyn Clausen (the driver), Jake Klem (back seat right), John Anderson (back seat left) and Jamie Hiner (front seat passenger) were in the first car, followed by Jon Carpentier (driver), Ben Ceder (front seat passenger), Alex Tate (middle seat left), Nate Dittmer (back seat bench) and David Pedersen (middle seat right) in a second car.

The first car was hit head-on by an 85-year-old man from Cleveland, Ohio driving down the wrong side of the road between 85 and 90 miles per hour without its headlights on. As the first car slammed on the breaks, Carpentier, the driver of the second car, swerved to the right, nicking the back right of the first car and finally stopping in front of the first car.

“I was driving the second car in our caravan, when Ben Ceder and I commented on a couple cars on the other side of the road flashing their lights at us. As we were talking about it we heard an enormous noise and saw fire coming from the first car,” Carpentier said.

Passengers Pedersen, Dittmer and Tate were drifting in and out of sleep at the time of the collision and were woken up as they swerved out of the way.

“I was sleeping in the back and didn’t realize what was happening,” Dittmer said.

As Pedersen was waking up from the car breaking, he only saw the break lights of the first car in front of them.

“We didn’t realize that the car in front of us was our friends, we were standing there looking at the car and then Jamie came stumbling out,” Pedersen said, “at that moment we ran to help him and realized that it was our friends.”

All five of the students in the second car were able to get out on their own despite the airbags going off.

“The only thought in my mind was that all four of my friends just died. Without a doubt the worst moment of my life,” Carpentier said.

Hiner was the only student in the first car that was able to get out on his own. Pederson ran to the car to help Hiner walk and laid him down on the side of the road and watched as flames came up from underneath the other car.

“The images of that night are burned into my memory,” Pederson said.

“I don’t remember much. I looked at my phone to send a text message a couple of minutes before the crash then all I can remember is waking up in the hospital,” Hiner said.

Hiner’s injuries included a concussion, a broken left scapula, fractured right side of his face, a deviated septum and chipped teeth. Clausen, Klem and Anderson needed help getting out of the car.

Anderson was pulled out of the car by witnesses and was breathing as the other men sat next to him but he was not responding. His injuries included a small subdural hematoma (bleeding in the brain), a severe concussion and abdominal injuries including a perforation in his GI tract.

“Adyn was screaming for us to just get him out of the car,” Dittmer said.

Clausen was pinned in the car and required the jaws of life to free him from the car. His injuries included a broken ankle, a torn ACL, a punctured lung, punctured spleen, broken jaw, dislocation of all toes, broke three ribs, broke five vertebrae and lost some teeth.

“It was fortunate that Adyn was driving. Because he is built, his body was able to protect him more. If someone else was driving I think it would have had a more severe outcome,” Pedersen said.

“I went back to help Jake to make sure he didn’t injure himself further and make sure he was still alert,” Carpentier said, “I was holding his head, but it was difficult to see a friend like that and my entire body was shaking.”

Klem was also pinned in the car and unable to free himself. His injuries included two broken vertebrae, broken pelvis, broken rib, snapped left tibia and fibula and lacerations on his head and legs.

Hiner, Anderson, Clausen and Klem were airlifted to Saint Francis Hospital in Peoria, Illinois where they started their recovery. The main goal for all of the them was to get better and be able to go home. Hiner was in the hospital for two days. Anderson was able to go home on April 15, Clausen was brought to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minn. on April 16. Klem was brought to Abbott Northwestern Hospital on April 11.

Hiner has returned to school along with the five students that were in the second car. Klem is hoping to return to Gustavus April 30, 2012 to prepare for graduation and Anderson and Clausen are working hard on their recovery in hopes of attending graduation.

“We have always been close, [the seniors] are all from the same section in co-ed [Norelius],” Dittmer said, “it hasn’t changed that. The surprising thing is all the people that say something to us that we don’t know that well.”

There was a benefit in honor of the men involved in the accident on April 18 at The Flame. The proceeds will go to the three students still in the hospital.