‘I could have been killed’

If there’s one thing Sen. John Jasinski knows after being run over by a snowmobile, it’s that he’s one lucky man.
“I could have been killed or handicapped for the rest of my life,” Jasinski said Friday morning after finishing a round of physical therapy at Interlude Restorative Suites in Plymouth. “I’ve never had anything this close to losing my life.”
Over the past couple weeks, Jasinski has spent at least two hours a day in rehab performing physical and occupational therapy. Even when he’s not with a physical therapist, Jasinski is off on his own doing exercises to rebuild his strength.
Jasinski broke his pelvis, three ribs and L5 vertebrae after a freak accident while snowmobiling with other legislators and state officials in northern Minnesota Feb. 4. Contrary to previously published reports in media across the state, Jasinski’s snowmobile was not hit, but rather his body was hit from behind by another snowmobile operated by fellow Sen. Mark Johnson of East Grand Forks.
Eight snowmobilers were on a trail on the side of the road south of Motley. “A turn came up really fast and I hit the brakes,” Jasinski said. “I went to the left and tipped over going about 10 mph.”
As Jasinski stood in a daze with a cloud of snow all around him, Johnson’s snowmobile knocked over Jasinski and ended up on top of him, Jasinski said.
“It hit me in the back of the waist,” Jasinski said. “It knocked the wind out of me and my face went into the snow. I panicked. The snowmobile was on top of me.”
Jasinski knew right away that something felt wrong with the lower half of his body. “I knew I broke something,” he said.
After he was transported to a hospital in Staples, Jasinski was airlifted to a Twin Cities hospital.
The veteran senator said the accident couldn’t have happened in a better spot. Along on the ride were Rodmen Smith, chief of the Minnesota DNR, and another friend who is a pilot for North Air Ambulance, though he did not fly Jasinski to the Twin Cities.
But Jasinski called the crash a matter of bad timing. “I couldn’t believe this happened during the first week of the session,” he said. Lawmakers came back to St. Paul on Jan. 31, just four days prior to the accident.
Jasinski found the first week to be the toughest in dealing with three broken ribs. After a week in the hospital, he was released to the Plymouth rehab facility where he has been performing daily physical therapy sessions. He is expected to be released from rehab this week.
The left side where he broke his pelvis remains weak.
Even though he’ll be out of rehab, the journey to getting back to normal physically is far from over. He will be confined to a wheelchair for at least two months as he won’t be able to put any downward pressure on his legs.
While Jasinski’s physical strength may be suffering a bit right now, his strength in being a senator for District 27 covering Steele and Rice counties hasn’t diminished hardly at all.
“This hasn’t stopped me at all,” said Jasinski, who serves as assistant majority leader. “It will make me want to do more because I’m behind.”
Jasinski said he hasn’t missed a meeting in the Senate as he has been working remotely by phone and on Zoom from his room at the rehab facility. “It’s driving me nuts to be away from there (Capitol). I’ll be back… this is just a little speed bump.”
He plans to be working from home after being released from rehab and then back at the State Capitol as early as next week.
Jasinski is focused on several bills for funding to help police officers with PTSD as well as recruiting new officers across the state. He has also been working on a bill to refill the unemployment fund to help employers. The bill passed the Senate last week.
Another project Jasinski is working on is upgrading the assets of Riverland College in Owatonna. He said Riverland needs to have more of a presence in Owatonna.
Once the legislative session is over in May, Jasinski will be turning attention to his bid for re-election. Even though numbers will be changing under redistricting revealed last week, the district will remain mostly intact with what Jasinski has been used to since getting elected in 2016. With the new boundary, southern Steele County and a portion of Dodge County have been taken out.
Jasinski said he wouldn’t be moving forward with anything without the “phenomenal care” he has received from those at the crash scene to the medical staffs at both hospitals and therapists at Interlude.
For Jasinski, the crash has made him realize how much he enjoys his freedom. “I’ve been pretty independent most of my life. I want to get back to that,” he said.
Jasinski, who has been an avid snowmobiler for his entire life, said he has also learned something else from this ordeal.
“I might be a little more careful—not that I was being dangerous,” he said. “A cat has nine lives. I’ve just had my first.”