Butte teenager recovering from accident

MAT-SU -- On New Year's Eve at about 2:45 in the afternoon, 16-year-old Jennifer Collins lost control of her car on the Old Glenn Highway near mile 13.5 of the Old Glenn Highway. The car, a 1994 Ford Escort, went off the road, collided with a utility pole and was crushed inward from the passenger side toward Jennifer.

The car was demolished and Jennifer suffered a death-threatening head injury. Photos of the car show a deep utility-pole shaped depression from the bottom of the passenger side doors to the roof over where Jennifer's head would have been. From the photos, it looks as if the Escort wrapped around the pole and then fell away and landed on its wheels. Rescue workers said they found blonde hair on the pole.

Within minutes of her accident, Jennifer was taken by ambulance to the Valley Hospital emergency room. Resuce workers were paged out at 2:50 p.m., and she arrived at the emergency room at 3:12. Later, she was taken by ambulance again to the intensive care unit at Providence Medical Center in Anchorage, where she spent 11 days in a drug-induced coma.

Today, Jennifer's parents, Don and Brooke Youmans, describe Jennifer as nothing short of a walking, talking miracle. In fact, it took several weeks for her to learn to walk and talk again. She remembers living at Alaska Regional Hospital's rehabilitation wing and not being able to speak to the nurses or to her mom or to any of the people visiting and caring for her.

"That was Horrific," Jennifer said.

But she is recovering fast. While looking at the photos of the wrecked Escort last Wednesday, Jennifer showed that her teen-aged sense of humor is also recovering.

"I miss my steering wheel cover," She said in an exaggerated comic whine.

In the pictures, the Escort's interior show the all the markings of a teenage girl's car. The pink steering wheel cover is complemented by furry white pom-poms and a Tweety Bird air freshener that hang from the rearview mirror. On the dash in front of the passenger's seat is a narrow sticker with the words "Alaska Girls Kick Ass" framing the eight-star blue and gold flag.

The interior of the car hints at the life that was interrupted in a few split seconds and then saved by the volunteer rescuers from the Butte fire and ambulance station.

There's more. Jennifer worked part time at Burger King, she's a member of Palmer High School's Key Club and active in a recycling awareness program. Last fall she was on stage playing the role of a monkey in "The Tiger Turned Pink." That's the life that was saved.

Although Jennifer has no memory of the accident, the rest of her memories have steadily come back and she is making plans for the future. Her doctors expect a full recovery. She's home-schooling right now and plans to attend Palmer High in the fall. She wants to study veterinary medicine after she graduates.

"I'm lucky to be alive," she said.