Residents from Colfax addiction recovery center assisted rescue in Polk County

Four other cars had already driven past the crash at the intersection of Highway 163 and NE 112th Street this past Sunday, but it was the bus full of students and staff from a faith-based addiction treatment center in Colfax that decided to pull over to the side of the road to check if everyone as OK.

And it was a good thing they did.

In a moment of pure selflessness, around seven students and a staff member — all recovering from addictions at Sheepgate, a division of Adult & Teen Challenge of the Midlands— helped lift a flipped and submerged vehicle onto its wheels, allowing law enforcement to free the driver and save him before he drowned.

According to crash reports from the Iowa State Patrol, a 2019 Honda Insight driven by a 74-year-old male was traveling southbound on NE 112th Street when it pulled out in front of a 2014 Buick Enclave driven by a 38-year-old male. The Honda was struck and rolled down the embankment and submerged in water.

The other vehicle — carrying four people, including two teenagers — was sent into the median. Sources told Newton News the submerged vehicle was in waist-deep water, the result of a heavy rainstorm the day before. Around the same time law enforcement arrived to the scene and help turn over the vehicle.

Mike Hunsberger, president of Sheepgate, said the Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputy was able to cut the seatbelt and remove the driver from the vehicle. The driver was the only occupant and was unconscious. When he was removed from the vehicle he started gasping for air. He was then life flighted to a hospital.

Hunsberger said everyone involved feels good about what they did.

“They were just like little kids, excited about being ablate help that guy and see that he started breathing and being told the next day that he was in stable condition in the hospital,” Hunsberger said. “It’s just amazing for them to be a part of that and that they were the ones who stopped.”

Sheepgate is a faith-based recovery program that has centers across Iowa and Nebraska for both men and women who are struggling with life-controlling addictions. It is a residential program, so individuals live on different properties. The men traveling on the bus were from the men’s center in Colfax.

Addiction oftentimes robs people of opportunities, Hunsberger added, and at worst it does so by death or incarceration. Recovery puts people on a path where better and more fulfilling opportunities present themselves. Thanks to recovery, these individuals were confronted with an opportunity to save someone’s life.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Hunsberger said.