Students mourn friend’s death

Mason Derrick Last Sunday afternoon, about 2 p.m., Andrew Downing was driving on SR 532 after working out at the gym with his friends. An ambulance approached, headed east, and Downing pulled over to let it pass.

Unbeknownst to Down­ing, his friend Mason Der­rick was lying dead on 15th Avenue and four of Der­rick’s friends were injured. Derrick’s black 1990’s Acura sedan had come to a twisted rest on the shoul­der after rocketing down the road at an estimated 85 mph, catching air on a dip, flipping and ejecting two of Derrick’s passengers. A third had crawled from the wreck and a fourth was trapped in­side the vehicle’s grasp.

Now, that ambulance haunts Downing.

“I pulled over,” he said, “but you never really think about where it’s going and who’s on the other end.”

“Now, I think that was probably Mason,” he whis­pered.

Whether it was or wasn’t the ambulance destined for Derrick’s body doesn’t change the fact that he’s gone.

It doesn’t change the fact that a pair of helicopters raced two young men, Justin Lindsey and Ryan Otero, to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, or that two girls, both 15, were rushed to area hospitals. One girl, Amanda Gutierrez, was later trans­ferred to Harborview.

The good news, accord­ing to Susan Gregg-Hanson, spokeswoman for Harbor­view’s patient information center, is that Gutierrez is currently in satisfactory condition.

Lindsey was discharged from Harborview on New Year’s Eve, but Otero re­mains in intensive care, Gregg-Hanson said.

“They haven’t classi­fied (Otero’s condition) as a coma,” she said, “but he’s not awake and not alert.”

A blog set up by Otero’s mother, Caprice, offered a bit more hope, though.

“I walked into Ryan’s room this morning and came over to his head and told him good morning and how much I love him and he opened his eyes,” she wrote Monday morning. “He seems more awake the last last few days and his eyes are clear, his breathing goes up when I talk to him so I know he knows who I am and that I am there for him.”

Kelsey Baird, the second female passenger, was released from Providence Medical Center in Everett.

What is left, said Molly Lee, Derrick’s academic counselor at Stanwood High School (SHS) before he graduated in 2008, is emptiness, as people try to come to terms with the accident and mourn the loss of a wellloved young man.

“I always remember him goofing around,” Downing said. “He was always so funny, always having fun.”

“Derrick always had something positive to offer. He was always helping people out with their problems,” Lee said.

At a candlelight vigil, held last Monday night at the high school, Lee said she was “listening to how much impact he’s had on the kids. The girls said he was the most kind and respectful guy.”

Taylor Carlson, a friend of Derrick’s and SHS student, said the same thing.

“Mason cared about me, made sure I was OK all the time. He always showed he cared, even if you weren’t super close,” she said.

Kelsey Kenehan, a senior at SHS, said Derrick’s friendship extended in all directions.

“All directions” included Otero, one of the passengers in the car with Derrick. Kenehan had class with both of them.

“Ryan was pretty quiet,” said Kenehan, “and not real social, but Mason was totally cool to him, was his lifting partner, spotted for him.”

On the day of the accident, Otero was catching a ride to work with Mason and his other friends, his mom blogged. He was scheduled to work at 3 p.m.

Downing and others who knew Derrick are adamant he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.

“I think maybe he was used to doing it,” Downing said, of racing down a street locally famous for its threemile straightaway.

“But, I remember it was really icy that day,” he added. “It was not a good decision. It makes me think a lot, makes me cautious.”

Carlson agreed Derrick made a fateful decision.

“It sucks,” she said. “It sucks because it was his own fault.”

The accident cut short Derrick’s dream of serving in the Army. He enlisted in the Army Reserves and completed his training after graduating in June 2008.

“He just wanted to get into the Army so bad,” Lee said. “He was so excited to move on.”

Melanie Todd, Derrick’s mother, said the pain of knowing her son is no longer able to move on has left her numb.

“I still don’t believe it’s true,” she said, “but people keep telling me it is, so it must be. I’m not quite sure how to go forward, though.”

To help Todd move forward, her mom came from Wyoming. Todd also has Roger, her husband and Derrick’s stepfather, to lean on, but it’s hard.

“We’re just kind of grieving together,” Todd said.

One huge help has been the community. Todd said she’s thankful for the way everyone pulled together.

“The good turnout at Mason’s memorial service helps me know he was a good person with a good heart and soul,” she said.

Like Derrick’s friends, Todd knows her son would never have intentionally hurt anyone, and she feels bad for the pain he caused his passengers’ families. She and her husband visited Otero and Gutierrez at Harborview to offer their support.

“We saw Ryan and his mom, and we dropped off flowers for Amanda and spoke with her father,” Todd said. She also saw Lindsey and Baird, who came to Derrick’s funeral.

“I’m grateful the other families don’t hold animosity toward my husband and I,” Todd said. “They’ve been very generous to not harbor ill will.”

As families, friends and the community strive to move forward, plans are in the works for assisting the families of Otero and Gutierrez.

An account has been set up at Wells Fargo for Otero, called the Ryan Otero Benefit Account.

Gutierrez’s mother is also interested in trying to ease the burden of medical bills on her family, said Jill Knott, a nurse at SHS who has been in contact with the family.

For everyone else, Lee said, it’s important to give emotions some room in the presence of such loss.

“My heart goes out to the kids,” she said. “We’ve gotta feel.”

A detailed account of Otero’s injuries, treatment and subsequent road to recovery can be found on his mother’s blog at http://www. caringbridge.org/visit/ryanotero/ journal.

Staff Reporter Jeremiah O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125 or ohagan@scnews.com.