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It has certainly been a wild few months for USC men’s basketball incoming freshman Alijah Arenas. Back in April, Arenas got into a car crash that left him in the hospital for nearly a week. Fortunately, however, he was able to make a full recovery, and has since joined the Trojans’ program.This past week, Arenas discussed the accident for the first time.
“The keypad starting to turn off, flickering on and off,” Arenas recalled. “The lights going off without me even doing anything. I’m not worried about it too much. But when I noticed something is when I had come to a stop at the first or second light of me leaving.
“Then I noticed the wheel wasn’t responding like I wasn’t in the car. When I was at that red light, when I was moving forward I was in the front left lane and I was getting over to the right. I noticed the wheel wasn’t moving as easy as it should. And me noticing that the keypad wasn’t on, those kind of just weirded me out.
“I’m trying to get in to turn into a neighborhood and when I’m turning and I’m speeding up to turn, I can’t stop. Next thing you know, all I remember is feeling pressure. I remember a light passing me and I look and I see it’s a car going by. I look back in front of me. I’m on my way to a curb. I get on the curb and all I can remember is just pressure. I wake up in the car after about like three minutes.
“I’m panicking, I’m scared. I didn’t really think to use my phone. I didn’t think of calling nobody. Cause the situation I was in, I didn’t think I had enough time. So I was kind of trying to fight time the whole time in the car.
“It kind of brought me a sense of urgency to just keep going until the end. For me it wasn’t a I could live or die situation. I didn’t know what it was. This is the first time I had really thought to myself, ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next couple minutes.’
“All I remember is hitting the floor and feeling the sensation of just cooling my body down. I felt like I was at a river because there was so much water. Next thing I remember looking at a ceiling full of lights and somebody holding my arm. I think that was the first hospital. The next one, I remember I woke up and I just couldn’t speak. I just remember being able to write and that’s how I kind of communicated.”
Fortunately, Arenas was able to make a full recovery from his accident. While basketball is obviously a secondary concern in a scenario like this, if all goes according to plan, he will be able to a suit up for the Trojans this fall.
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