She was hurt in a serious crash. Tri-City student is on the mend

A Tri-City college student is showing marked improvement since she was thrown from an SUV in Arizona on Friday morning.

Danika Whitsett, 20, who is in a Phoenix-area hospital, stopped needing a ventilator and was already making jokes, according to her dad, Dan Whitsett.

“She started breathing on her own, started waking up, and said, “You finally came to visit me in Arizona,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Danika is a 2016 graduate of Tri-Cities Prep High School, where her dad is the head football coach and athletic director.

He posted that she’s had some college friends stop in to visit and even managed Tuesday to eat breakfast, albeit mashed potatoes and gravy.

“When it did not arrive as soon as she thought it should, she sent the head nurse to retrieve it!” Dan wrote. “Pain is one thing, but hold out on her food and it gets serious. She was also able to keep it down, which was a huge victory.”

Still, she has many broken bones and other injuries, as do the two friends she was riding with near Buckeye, Ariz., 40 miles outside of Phoenix, where she attends Grand Canyon University.

Danika was reportedly asleep in the SUV with her friend, Vanessa King, when the driver, Rametrius Walker, lost control and the SUV rolled, said Trooper Kameron Lee of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Their SUV collided with another car in the 1:47 a.m. collision on Interstate 10. Lee said the cause is under investigation.

Walker was thrown from the SUV and remains in critical condition. King’s injuries were less severe but they’re all in the same hospital.

Danika’s friends Rachel Armijo and Taylor Zavala started a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses, and through Tuesday afternoon, had raised more than $17,000.

King started a GoFundMe page Sunday for Walker.