Linden Student Upgraded to Serious Condition After Crash

There is no doubt area parents and school officials are warning students to be careful on the roads during prom and graduation season.

Especially after hearing about a crash Monday that has left a Linden student in the hospital, The Flint Journal reports.

According a Fenton Press article, Timothy Wedesky, 17, of Fowlerville struck a concrete farm building while traveling southbound on Fowlerville Road in Conway Township. Wedesky transferred to Linden in January and was settling in at the school, the Fenton Press reported.

His condition has been upgraded from critical to serious, the Fenton Press reported Thursday.

Fenton Police Chief Rick Aro urged students to be careful on the roads during prom and graduation season.

"Every year it seems like a student is seriously hurt or worse," Aro said. "Our agency and other agencies around are all sensitive to that situation and we will being vigilant to kids being out late at night and doing what they shouldn't be doing. We give a word to the wise to be smart."

hosted a Mock Accident for students earlier this month, . The dramatic event was a re-enactment of four students who drank before going to prom and hit a tree, crushing their car and killing one of them.

The Brighton Patch article said Randy Swain, an emergency room nurse and parent volunteer, felt an urgency to present the program and show the truths behind drinking and driving for teens. A parent volunteer did the makeup and costuming, while provided a hearse to take away one of the students.

The goal of the mock accident is to discourage students from engaging in behaviors that are harmful to both themselves and others, becoming a statistic like these quoted by Fire Marshal Mike O'Brian:

• 15 percent of all teens involved in crashes have alcohol in their systems.
• 35 percent of motor vehicle crashes involving 16- to 20-year-olds end in death and 37 percent of those are alcohol related.
• 8 young people per day die in alcohol-related crashes; on the weekend one teen dies per hour and 50 percent of those deaths are alcohol related.