Newspaper News Story

Mitchell Pate, The Bison
Buffalo HS (Buffalo, Texas)

Students hospitalized after Friday-night wreck: Five local teens involved in auto accident on Highway 79

Senior Jason Woods in stable condition after spending weekend in Hillcrest ICU

Jason Woods condition has been downgraded to stable after spending more than four days in ICU following an automobile accident Friday night.

Woods received sever head injuries during the accident, which crushed the passenger side of the car. After spending the weekend in a drug-sedated coma, Woods began to improve Sunday night and will be transported to Baylor Hospital in Dallas to begin rehab. Doctors speculate it will take weeks or months for him to recover from the accident.

“He is now beginning his road to recovery,” Jason’s mother, Keely, said Wednesday night. “It’s going to be a long, drawn-out process.”

The accident occurred while Woods and friend Austin Bailey were heading to the Buffalo/Leon football game in Jewett. The collision, which involved four vehicles and took place at 8:10 p.m. on Highway 79 two miles out of Buffalo at the Weedon Addition turn and Celebration Church.

According to investigating DPS trooper Wade Thomas, a 1982 blue Ford F150 pick-up driven by Phillip Bounds, 50, of Buffalo, was waiting to turn into the Weedon Addition. Junior Tara Conklin was driving a 2004 blue Aveo with sophomore Ann Weary as a passenger. Behind them, Bailey was driving Woods’ 2001 Honda Civic. Woods was in the passenger seat. According to Thomas, both vehicles approached the Ford at a high rate of speed; Bailey reports that he was driving within the speed limit.

Conklin swerved to the right side of the truck. Bailey went to the left, clipping the rear of the pick-up and becoming airborne before colliding head-on with a 2003 red Pontiac Grand Am driven by Jamie Copeland, 18, of Jewett. The Honda flipped and landed upside-down while the Grand Am ended up in the roadway.

According to Woods’s mother, the vehicle her son and Bailey were in flipped four times before landing in the ditch. Thomas said there was “extensive front-end damage to both of the vehicles.”

Woods was life-flighted from the scene to Hillcrest Baptist in Waco. Copeland was transported to ETMC Fairfield by ambulance and Bailey was taken to Fairfield in a private vehicle. Both were released from the hospital the same night. Conklin and Wear were not injured.

Donations are being accepted at the school as well as some local business. An account has been set up at First National Bank for Jason and his mother to help with transportation and medical expenses.