Local Has Luck on Her Side, Survives Rollover

"It all just happened so fast...I veered into the ditch and rolled," was the statement of Elizabeth (Rose) Wilkes, who lost control of her Expedition on Hwy 2 on Thursday, November 17.

She stated she was, "...lucky...very lucky." Rose was not wearing her seat belt and feels fortunate to have been through what she was, and come out "bruised and battered," and lucky to be alive.

The incident occurred at approximately 1:55 p.m., just west of Malta close to the airport turnoff. Rose was taken by ambulance to the Phillips County Hospital where she was treated and kept for observation overnight. Due to a reaction to medication she received, she started twitching like she was having a seizure; otherwise she would have gone home after being checked out.

Traveling west, Rose guesses she must have lost focus on the road and went off the pavement.

If going off the road wasn't enough to have a wreck to contend with, there is a bit of "Paul Harvey and the Rest of the Story" that needs to be shared. While not everyone has good luck, Rose might be one who tends to gravitate to the more unlucky than lucky.

I went to the scene of the accident and took pictures, and was slightly confused when viewing the tracks and where the rollover ended. In the path of the vehicle tracks were – not one – not two – but THREE dead carcasses. This led me to lean toward understanding why she had wrecked. However, when I had visited with her Dad, Shane, the afternoon of the accident, I had inquired if she had hit a patch of ice, as a cause of the accident. He had responded no, and that she seemed to have taken her eyes off the road or lost concentration, over corrected and rolled. He hadn't mentioned her slaying three wildlife (the carcasses appeared to be antelope) in the course of traffic during the rollover.

Rose shared with me when I inquired about the carcasses, if she had hit them, which could easily contribute to a mishap, and she laughed.

"No...they were dead alongside the road and (the) snow had covered them...," she replied. The highway department had not removed them prior to the snow arriving. Seriously, who had odds like that to veer off the road and manage to hit three dead carcasses? Rose.

Whether it was Murphy's Law or fortuitousness on her behalf, that's how it went down.

While she has been quite fortunate, she has had her "lectures" about the importance of wearing seat belts.

In further visiting with Rose, I also inquired about an accident or run-in she had earlier last month, coming home from Glasgow in her grandpa's vehicle one evening. She said she was irritated with everyone she was meeting oncoming traffic that were not dimming their headlights to dim, when she was meeting them.

She said, "I finally got tired of no one dimming so I decided to keep mine on bright as well and flipped on the high beam setting. It was with those nice BRIGHT LIGHTS that she was able to see not one, but TWO deer, and unable to avoid them, collided and kill them. *Perhaps they were on a suicide mission as a result of seasonal-affect-syndrome.

Asked if she had any advice for others after all this, she replied, "Don't veer off the road!"

Rose, 24 years of age, is the mother of a six-year-old daughter, Anna, who is attending kindergarten in Malta Elementary. She has a three-year-old son, Axel, who is living with his dad in Texas

The vehicle was totaled and there was no need for an "auto-topsy," and none of those slain were giving any testimony or different versions of the ordeal. This might be one of those stories to tell the grandkids someday; you know...where one grabs the hand grip on the upper edge of the car and someone yells, "Watch this!"

Lesson learned. Message shared. We're glad things turned out as well as they did for you, Rose. As the saying goes, "keep it between the white lines!"