By Dani Woodland
A BYU student is in intensive care following a car accident involving a driver who was arrested for DUI in Provo Saturday evening.
Elizabeth Kasper, a 22-year-old senior from Idaho Falls, Idaho, is being treated at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center for a lacerated liver, broken collarbone and bruised lung. Her brother-in-law, in Provo after attending last week”s session of Especially for Youth, walked away with no injuries, and her husband, Mark Kasper, suffered a concussion and some bleeding in his brain. The bleeding stopped and Mark was given painkillers and released from the hospital.
According to a police report and Mark”s account, the accident occurred at 6:23 Saturday evening when a juvenile male driving a multicolored Ford Bronco ran a red light while traveling eastbound on Bulldog Boulevard. The Bronco struck the passenger side of the Kaspers” silver Toyota Camry while they were driving southbound on Freedom Boulevard. The Kaspers” vehicle fishtailed, striking a gold Camry traveling slightly behind them, and then spun out until it stopped 100 feet away in the McDonald”s parking lot. The driver and passengers in the gold Camry were transported to UVRMC with unknown injuries.
The driver of the Bronco was arrested at the scene.
Elizabeth, a communications major, received the brunt of the collision”s impact because she was sitting in the passenger seat while her husband drove.
Mark, a 27-year-old senior from Murrieta, Calif., majoring in information technology, said the doctors at UVRMC are watching for internal bleeding from his wife”s lacerated liver. As of Monday, the doctors had found no bleeding and Mark said they are hoping to move his wife out of intensive care soon, though there is no date set.
“There is no time frame, and we don”t want to get anyone”s hopes up,” he said.
Elizabeth is conscious, talking and knows where she is and what”s going on, according to Mark. She is taking morphine for pain and is in good spirits.
All occupants of the Kaspers” car were wearing seatbelts.
