One Marietta teen was flown to a Columbus trauma center and another transported to Marietta Memorial Hospital Wednesday afternoon following a wreck that ripped off the top of the car in which they were traveling.
Michael B. Brown, 18, was driving a 2000 Mercedes SLK 230 south on Hadley Hollow Road with 18-year-old Justin M. Grahame in the passenger seat around 4 p.m. when Brown apparently lost control of the vehicle near the intersection with County Road 9 in Marietta Township, according to Trooper Eric Knowlton, with the Ohio Highway Patrol's Marietta post.
Brown was flown to Grant Medical Center in Columbus and placed in the intensive care unit where he was listed in critical condition at press time. Grahame was treated and released at Marietta Memorial Hospital.
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SAM SHAWVER The Marietta Times
A Med Flight helicopter transported 18-year-old Michael B. Brown of Marietta to Grant Medical Center in Columbus following a wreck at the intersection of Hadley Hollow Road and County Road 9 in Marietta Township Wednesday afternoon.
Knowlton said the Mercedes first went off the left side of the road, then swerved right across the roadway where it slid into a fifth-wheel flatbed trailer on property owned by O'Brien Tree Service at 25 Hadley Hollow Road.
Knowlton said the driver's side door of the Mercedes struck the trailer's fifth-wheel, then the car spun around and the rear wheel on the driver's side struck a post before the vehicle came to a complete rest.
"The impact pushed the trailer several feet into a pile of logs and damaged the back end of the trailer," Knowlton said.
He said it appeared only the driver's side airbag had deployed, and it could not be determined whether the driver and passenger were wearing seatbelts.
Knowlton said the incident is still under investigation, but the vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed.
The area of roadway along which the accident occurred spanned about 400 feet.
Reno Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Marietta City Fire and Rescue, and Med Flight responded.
