Mother in hit-and-run awake, remembers everything, family friend says
A family friend of Andrea and Emma Dewey said Tuesday that Andrea is awake and remembers everything about the crash that claimed the life of her daughter’s best friend Saturday as they drove home from a Columbia track meet.
Rebecca Baez said both Andrea and Emma are responding well to treatment at the Palmetto Health Richland Trauma Center in Columbia.
Baez said Emma Dewey has been placed in a medically induced coma to help her body heal.
“The doctor said everything she has is fixable, but it’s going to take time,” Baez said. “They are expecting to bring her out of the coma by the end of the week.”
Andrea Dewey was driving her daughter Emma and her friend Grace Sulak back to Bluffton from a track meet in Columbia around 5:45 p.m. on I-26 in Calhoun County when their vehicle was involved in an accident with an unknown driver who fled the scene, according to the S.C. Highway Patrol.
Sulak, a River Ridge Academy student, died immediately at the scene after the Dewey vehicle was struck, ran off the road and hit a tree.
Andrea and Emma Dewey were airlifted from the site of the wreck to Palmetto Health Richland Trauma Center near Columbia, the Highway Patrol reported.
A condition report for Emma Dewey was not available Monday or Tuesday from the hospital because she is not listed as a patient, Tammie Epps, media relations manager for the hospital said Monday.
Four calls to the hospital Tuesday morning to ask about Andrea and Emma Dewey’s conditions were not returned.
On Monday, South Carolina Highway Patrol officials said they were looking for a white Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab truck with damage to the front right fender that they believed was involved in the crash.
Anyone with information about the crash or the driver who fled the scene can contact the Highway Patrol at 843-953-6010 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CrimeSC.
Caitlin Turner: 843-706-8184, @Cait_E_Turner
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This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Mother in hit-and-run awake, remembers everything, family friend says."