Victims of recent ATV accident are all doing well

Kassidy Rakestraw with her friend Josie Lyons at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis "with a smile after it all," her mother Jessica English said. (Photo courtesy of English family)

After their Polaris Ranger ATV collided with a Nissan Maxima on U.S. 231 Monday, Jessica English -- the girls' mother and John's daughter-in-law -- said that John English and his two granddaughters are all doing well.

Alyson English had been airlifted to Riley Hospital, but was able to return home that night, albeit with stitches and a concussion.

Kassidy Rakestraw, the only one to be ejected from the ATV, did not return until two days later with multiple facial injuries and a concussion. Jessica said she "has got quite a recovery ahead of her" and will need surgery on a torn knee ligament and possibly for her shoulder as well.

John "took the major brunt of the accident" and is still in the hospital. He had a ruptured small intestine and a large gash on his head, but after surgery is now doing better and has even walked a few times.

Jessica lives with her family just a few yards from where the accident took place, and said she just knew something had happened when her daughters were late getting home and she saw the traffic and helicopters.

Just six days before, her husband, Jason English, had also been involved in an accident on U.S. 36 that left him with a fractured shoulder and a concussion.

But she also said that through all of this "people are coming out of the woodwork to help us," adding that she has had visits from her daughters' friends and people from their schools, who have brought so much food that she's finding it hard to fit it all in her refrigerator.

"(Bainbridge Elementary) literally brought two carloads of food today," she said. "I cannot thank the community enough for what they've done."