UPDATE @ 7:45 p.m. (March 26): The driver of the car and one of the two riders have been released by a hospital, a Shelby County Sheriff's deputy said.
The driver, identified as Logan Cooper, and back seat passenger Lakeland Kemp suffered cuts and bruises.
Front seat passenger Jordan Drees suffered a broken tibia, fractured vertebrae and a hematoma. Drees remains in stable condition.
UPDATE @ 5:39 p.m. (March 25)
The investigation continues into a single-vehicle wreck that injured three teens after the vehicle hit a tree and split in half late Sunday afternoon.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office has now released the names of the teens, all 17, who were taken to hospitals from the accident in the 6000 block of Wright Puthoff Road near Fort Loramie about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
The driver, Logan Cooper, of Fort Loramie, was taken by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital; Front seat passenger Jordan Drees, of Sidney, and back seat passenger Lakeland Kemp, of Piqua, were taken to Wilson Memorial Hospital.
We are still working to learn the severity of their injuries.
The car was headed north when Cooper is believed to have over-corrected and swerved to miss an oncoming vehicle at the crest of the hill on Wright Puthoff.
Cooper lost control of the car and went off the west side of the road, striking three trees before the car split in half, ejecting at least two.
Officials initially told this news organization that none of the teens was wearing seat belts, but on Monday said that part of the investigation isn’t clear.
“It looks like now that possibly maybe the rear seat passenger was wearing a seat belt, but we have not been able to confirm that as of this time though,” Shelby Sheriff’s Deputy Warren Melerine said.
Investigators plan to get a search warrant to access the car’s computer data to see who was wearing a seat belt for sure, because the injuries tell a different story.
“I've never seen anybody who was ejected from a vehicle who was wearing their seat belt, because the seat belt locks up and keeps you where you're supposed to be,” Deputy Melerine said.
“The engine and the front wheels stayed at the first trees, and then the passenger compartment of the vehicle continue and struck a tree further down,” Melerine said Sunday.
When investigators arrived, they initially thought only one teen was involved.
“The information that we had was because the other two were walking around,” Melerine said. “So they weren't initially identified for about 10 minutes because they were around the crowd of people.”
