The Chersevani family was driving to the East Coast to gather the family together before their third child’s birth and before dad, Edward, was set to leave for National Guard duties early next year.
As they drove east on Interstate 70 on Friday morning, March 14, the family from Bailey considered themselves lucky because they usually make the drive at night.
“This is actually the first time we've ever left early for this trip because [Edward] was supposed to have work that morning and they were nice enough to let him go early. So we decided to take the opportunity to get there a little bit earlier,” Skylar said.
The family hit the road east around 10:30 a.m., and by the time they crossed the border into Kansas, Edward said the weather turned rainy and snowy.
They could also see a dust storm ahead.
The family, Edward and his pregnant wife Skylar, children Hailey and Luciano and their dog, Mochi, drove into the dust in Sherman County, Kansas, and crashed into a pile-up that involved 71 vehicles, killed eight people and injured others.
The family is back home in Bailey with minor injuries. Skylar said her baby, due in May, stopped kicking after the crash, but was relieved to feel the fetus kicking while riding to the hospital.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, the severe dust storm on I-70 near milepost 28 was a strong weather front with high winds that moved into northwest Kansas from Colorado. The storm slowed traffic and dropped visibility to zero.
“We were about to enter the storm except there was a huge gust of wind that kicked up a bunch of dirt and sand so bad to the point where I couldn't even see the hood of my car,” Edward said.
“And, I was already going under the speed limit. Just because there were a bunch of semis around us kind of getting blown around. And I didn't want to be involved in a wreck if one of them flipped over.”
Edward said when the wind picked up, he slowed his car to about 40 mph on the 75 mph stretch of interstate.
But when the wind let up, they were met with the wreckage. There was no time to slow down.
“When we were pulling in, there were a couple cars and a semi that kind of created a triangle,” Edward said. “And when I saw the wall of cars, I kind of threw the steering wheel to the left a little bit to [steer] our car in that triangle. And which saved us, because there was another semi that came in maybe about a foot away from our car.”
Other cars started slamming into the semi-trailer.
The family said they could hear whining and groaning from the crashes. Their daughter and son had whiplash and suffered cuts and bruises. Skylar was the most injured, with bruises around her body, including her sternum and tailbone. She said that she was terrified that something had happened to her baby.
“But, he wound up kicking me one time on the way to the hospital, and me and [Edward] both just started crying. We realized he was OK,” Skylar said.
Edward, who said he was sore, jumped out of the car and started to help others in the wreckage.
“I managed to find a crowbar that was laying on the grass. I picked that up. I broke open one of the truck windows. I started pulling some people out of their cars” Edward said. “Then, I came back for my wife and my kids. They were safer in the car with all that dust and stuff getting blown around and cars still hitting.”
Edward remembers pulling two people out of one truck that looked like a piece of paper because it looked flattened.
“There were two guys in there. One of them, his face was just completely covered in blood. I couldn't see his nose, I couldn't see his lips. I only saw his eyes. So I pulled him out of the window,” he said. "I managed to get them out, but the screaming was so loud, people groaning. It was so loud. People were still crashing.”
The family receives help from others and is looking for more help
The family was eventually taken to Goodland Regional Medical Center.
One of the medical center’s social workers, Laci Leichliter, arranged for the family to stay with the medical center’s CEO Lucretia Stargell for the night. She also connected them with Hope’s Place to provide them with clothes. Leichliter also got them prepaid phones after their phones were destroyed in the crash.
Edward said the car was also totaled, and most of their possessions were destroyed or soaked by the rain.
“We brought all of our clothes, every backpack we had, my laptop was in there, all my hockey stuff. I had one of my medium ruck sacks that I was supposed to be taking to drill.”
An office manager at their pediatrician's office in Evergreen, April Pearson, connected the family with a thrift store for children’s clothes, but Edward said the loss of the car hits the family hard.
“That was our car. That car, it was really, really great. It really did me great driving back and forth to Denver,” Edward said. “ And now that it's gone, we're kind of a little stressed out on what we're going to do.”
The family said they’re appreciative of everyone’s support. They said their family from New Jersey plans to visit them when their baby is born in May — they don’t want to drive the distance any time soon.
“All that happened within probably a span of 10 to 15 seconds,” Edward said. “It was bright and sunny and then out of nowhere it just kicked up all the sand I couldn't even see in front of my car. And they don't really train you for stuff like that, especially in the military. It was within seconds.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family.
