FOREST LAKE, Minn. — Lets get this out of the way first: Allyson Andert is grateful, and REALLY glad to be alive.
After all, she almost experienced the alternative.
The 22-year-old was driving a friend's pickup southbound on I-35W near Wyoming on March 13 when she lost control and rolled the vehicle into a culvert on the side of the interstate. The truck landed upside down in two feet of water, leaving Allyson submerged.
"I felt the water getting higher and higher in the pickup truck. It eventually ended up covering my face ...The entire time I was fighting for my life and kept telling myself I need to keep fighting," Andert recalled. "The reason I kept fighting is because I didn't want my mom to get the call I was dead."
Lucky for Allyson, a passerby and two State Troopers were also willing to fight for her life. They scrambled to cut her seat belt, pull her from the pickup and then performed CPR until she started breathing on her own.
"I would have died," Allyson said when asked how things would have ended up had the good samaritans not stopped.
Fast forward two weeks and things are starting to get closer to 'normal' for Andert. Her body is recovering, although there is still plenty of soreness in her neck, back and side. What is not doing as well is her psyche... mostly due to an obstacle that is causing significant stress.
The night of the crash Allyson had two backpacks in the pickup, one of which contained her laptop, school books and a half-semester of notes. She returned to school at Bethel University Monday to resume her Social Work major without them, because the company that towed the truck won't release the backpack to her. Allyson has a paper due today and a big makeup test looming, and says it's impossible to do a good job on either one without her notes and books.
"I absolutely love my classes and I love my professors, but I'm feeling defeated, under a lot of pressure, I'm really stressed out," she shared.
Andert says she has called Harold's Towing (also known as Twin Cities Towing) in Forest Lake three times, and her mom called once, and they told her until a towing fee is paid they cannot release the vehicle or any property inside. She acknowledged that her friend only carried liability insurance, which doesn't pay for towing and storage... and as the vehicle is totaled, he doesn't want it back.
KARE 11 was able to reach one of the owners of Harold's Towing, who explained that the bill on tow and storage of the wrecked pickup now sits at $1,300, and it is company policy that nothing is released from a vehicle until the bill is paid in full. Making things more complicated, she says, is that the truck does not belong to Allyson but someone else, and it is policy that someone who doesn't own a vehicle is not granted access to it without that owner's permission.
When asked if the company would release the backpack with the truck owner's permission, the Harold's spokesperson said she would look into it.
Allyson is not sure what shape everything is in, figuring that the laptop and her cell phone are toast due to the mud and water. She is hopeful that her books and notes will be usable once dried out. Her reasoning for wanting them back sounds like a typical college student trying to make it on her own.
"All I want is my school books that I had to pay for... they're not cheap!"