Teen, commissioner recovering after weekend accidents

Friends of 19-year-old Tubby Suddeth came to see his destroyed pickup at Rhodes Wrecker Service after hearing of the wreck Sunday.

A Wilkes County teen is in the shock trauma unit at MCG in Augusta after wrecking his truck early Sunday morning at exactly the same spot on the Metasville Road where his younger brother crashed last summer.

Thomas "Tubby" Suddeth, 19, was flown by air ambulance to MCG after Washington-Wilkes EMS and first responders treated him and Rescue 1 personnel extricated him from his overturned truck, which had crashed in the exact same curve on the Metasville Road where his brother Austin had been seriously injured in a truck wreck last August.

Suddeth's mother, Tammy Powell, said Tuesday evening, "Tubby is conscious and with it, and he's going to be moved out of the shock trauma unit as soon as a room is available."

His most serious injury is a severely damaged right eye and broken facial bones around the eye sockets. His spleen and liver were lacerated, and fiveribs on his right side were broken, along with his left collarbone.

Friday the 13th strikes on Highway 78 A truck loaded with frozen chickens spend several hours on its side Friday after leaving the road on Highway 78 at Barnett Farms. The truck, bound from Athens, left the road in a turn before 7 a.m., authorities say, and the driver was not seriously injured. Three wreckers from Sutton's Towing and Recovery worked for hours to get the semi upright and out of the ditch, while traffic on the highway waited. The chickens didn't make it.

Powell said that his eyeball was lacerated, and that he cannot see with the eye at all now. "His eyesight may come back, but right now he can't even see light."

His friends say he had been out with friends after an evening at the tractor pull, and that he was alone when he left to go home about 7 a.m. Sunday. His mother confirmedthat Suddeth had crashed within feet of where his brother crashed last summer. Austin has had an extensive recovery from his injuries, with surgery again in March.

Georgia State Patrol Senior Trooper Delston Branch said that Thomas Suddeth was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol, underage possession of alcohol, and failure to maintain a lane.

In a separate accident Friday afternoon, Wilkes County Commissioner Jerry Stover crashed his Ford F-150 on the Thomson Highway, leaving the road and crashing end-over-end. After several days in MCG recovering from shoulder injuries, a broken arm, and a nose injury, Stover is out of the hospital and staying with friends. He will have to return for surgery to repair a badly damaged shoulder joint. Stover has struggled with diabetes for years, and said that a diabetic seizure caused the accident. He was not cited in the accident.

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