By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
A 43-year-old Salisbury man is fighting to get off a ventilator at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte following a Saturday afternoon wreck.
Roger Wayne Crawford, of 2650 Oddie Road, was airlifted to the hospital from the wreck on Dunns Mountain Road.
A hospital spokesman said Thursday that Crawford is in fair condition.
A family member said Crawford is now being weaned from a ventilator.
Jessica Crawford-Foutz, Crawford’s daughter, said her father sustained multiple injuries, including a shattered heel on his right foot, fractured bones in his left foot, a broken rib that punctured his lung and a broken pelvis.
She said it has been hard on the family to see him in this condition. She said doctors have advised them he will be in a wheelchair for months. Before the accident he worked at Swing Transport in Spencer.
His wife, Trina, stepson Jeremy, and Jessica, along with other family members, are taking turns staying at the hospital.
Jessica said it has been very difficult for her 10-year-old sister, McKenzie, a student at Morgan Elementary School. Thus far she hasn’t been able to visit her father.
The accident occurred around 4:45 p.m. Saturday. Trooper D.H. Deal of the N.C. Highway Patrol reported that 18-year-old Robert Patrick Edward Stuckey was driving a 2005 Jeep north on Dunns Mountain Road when he veered left, loft control and skidded across the center line.
Crawford, who was driving a 2001 Ford F-150 pickup south, saw the out-of-control vehicle and ran off the right side of the road trying to avoid the collision.
Stuckey’s vehicle continued on, striking Crawford’s pickup and sending it farther off the roadway. Stuckey’s Jeep came to stop across Dunns Mountain Road.
Deal charged Stuckey with driving left of center.
Both vehicles were deemed a total loss.