Graphic by Alexis Riner

By Kendra Schwartz

Ducking his head into his lap and using his hands to cover his head, senior Marquise Guesby sat in the back of the Jeep, not knowing whether he would survive what was supposed to be just a ride home from school on Nov. 6.

“No, don’t do it,” he remembers fellow passenger sophomore Jordan Green saying.

Guesby heard a thud and watched the seats of the car turn on top of him.

Sophomore Cody Thompson was knocked out as he heard branches snapping in front of him. He later awoke, surrounded by his own blood.

“[I felt] mostly just an overwhelming feeling of devastation, like my life was over, like I was pretty much done for,” Thompson said. “And the feeling of my friend Nick wrapping his shirt around my head to put pressure on the bleeding. He saved my life.”

After asking for a ride home, Guesby ended up in a real life Forza game as he said the driver, senior  Nicholas Ham, attempted the racing technique of “drifting” while on East 1550 Road, a gravel road.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Steve Lewis said Ham was going “faster than prudent.” Ham lost control and the right side of the car hit a tree.

“He thought he was going slow enough that he could do it, but it was too loose of a gravel road to even try it,” Guesby said. “I knew we would have spun out in the first place, but I didn’t know we’d hit the tree.”

Both Ham and Green declined to be interviewed, citing their traumatic reactions to the experience.

“It said in the [Lawrence Journal World] that we were all high, but nobody had anything,” Guesby said of a story that has been changed on the newspaper’s website. “There’s [sic] a lot of false statements in that article. They said we were all under 17, and I’m not. I am 17. Only Cody, who was the youngest one in the car, is under 17.”

Although there is no proof that any of the students were under the influence of any substance, Guesby said police did find a pipe in a bag of one of the students. Additionally, Ham was driving without a license — a detail Lewis confirmed. Lewis could not say if charges were filed.

There are standard legal repercussions for those who drive without a license.

“They can be cited with a summons or a ticket,” Lewis said. “It’s a misdemeanor, and they can go to court.”

Sitting in the passenger seat in the front of the car, Thompson’s injuries were the most severe, and he was airlifted away by helicopter.

“We slammed sideways into the tree right where I was sitting in the seat where the car smashed in,” Thompson said. “I hit my head on the tree through the window, fractured my temporal bone [of the skull] and got a traumatic brain injury.”

Thompson was released from the hospital within a few days.

From this injury, Thompson has seen effects in his everyday learning experience. To help cope with his brain injury, Thompson takes an unofficial reduced schedule.

“It’s been hard for me to go to class and focus very well,” Thompson said. “I was in the nurse’s office one day. She said I can just go there whenever I’m not feeling too well and work on my stuff there.”

Lewis, on behalf of the Sheriff’s Department, advises all teen drivers to beware of distractions in the car to avoid such adverse effects.

“My recommendation is to stay completely focused on your driving, no distractions whatsoever,” Lewis said. “Those distractions could be your cell phone or any kind of electronic device. Just turn it off and put it away in the glove box or far away. Other distractions can be friends in the vehicle.”

Fortunately, all of the passengers survived the accident, but each of the students undoubtedly has regrets regarding that day. Guesby’s greatest regret is simply getting in the car without asking whether Ham had a license.

“Take life seriously,” Guesby said. “You can have fun. Just don’t do what I did.”