'That Image Is Still in My Head'

Jake Prunty is lucky.

He could be sitting in a wheelchair, or worse.

Instead, he was released from the hospital one day after a rollover crash in downtown Kent injured him and four friends, one seriously.  Now, the only obvious sign of his being in the crash is a special back brace — and the lingering physical and emotional pain.

Even a fractured L1 vertebra couldn't stop him from returning to school on Friday to a barrage of hugs, questions and good wishes from his fellow students and administrators at Theodore Roosevelt High School.

“I tell everybody 'don’t squeeze me tight, just give me a pat,'” he joked.

“I went on Friday to show everyone that I was all right and that I wasn’t paralyzed, because there was a rumor going around school that I was," Jake said. "I just wanted to show everybody that I was still standing.

“Everybody was shocked that I was there," he said. "Everybody was shocked to see me. It was tough. I wanted to go to school, though.”

Prunty was out with friends during their senior lunch break when the accident happened one week ago today. They had driven from school to The Exchange, where Jake sat outside on a bench and talked with best friend Zach Marlow.

"We talked about hanging out," Jake said.

They were driving back to school when the crash happened just after 11 a.m. March 16.

A light rain was falling, and Garrett Byerly was driving up North Water Street toward Crain Avenue with friend Demitre Jones sitting next to him. Jake was in the middle in the back seat with Marlow on his left and Nate Fleck on his right.

“I just remember we were going straight, I was talking to Zach, and we started to fishtail," Jake said. "I thought Garrett was fooling around, but he wasn’t. He was trying to get the car under control. We just ended up going on two wheels on one side, and then we ended up two wheels on the other side. I guess we flipped, and then we turned over.

“I just remember going upside down and then slamming," he said. "That was it."

Jake said Byerly and Jones were wearing their seatbelts, but none of boys in the back seat were wearing theirs.

Kent firefighters were on the scene in minutes and worked quickly to get the boys out of the Jeep. But Marlow had become partially trapped beneath the car, so firefighters had to get the other boys out first before they could lift the car and get him out.

“I didn’t really want to leave Marlow in there,” Jake said. “I remember grabbing ahold of his legs, telling him they were coming. I was talking and trying to calm him down. That image is still in my head from the crash. It sucks to see him like that."

Four of the boys were rushed to Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna. Marlow was taken to Akron City Hospital.

While Jake's injuries were serious, his friend's injuries were much worse. Marlow remains in the intensive care unit at Akron six days after the March 16 accident.

"I’m just hoping for Marlow," Jake said. "I love him, and I just hope that he is all right after all this. I just want to be able to hug him whenever he stands up."

Jake said he's grateful for the support of all his friends and administrators at Kent City Schools. Tom Larkin, the district's assistant superintendent, was at the scene of the crash checking on the students, and other administrators have since traveled to Akron to visit with Marlow's family.

"(They're) behind us all the way," Jake said. "I'm very thankful for that, I really am. I’m glad I have a lot of support."

Jake is required to wear the back brace that keeps his spine straight for at least 12 weeks, though he can remove it occasionally. His days are pretty much limited to watching TV and movies, but he is allowed to return to school after spring break this week. And he wants to visit his friend still in the hospital sometime this week.

As for the seatbelts, Jake said it was the only time he didn't wear one.

"We didn’t really think of it," he said. "It was a good thing Garrett and Demitre had their belts on. They said I was lucky where I was placed in the seating in the car."

The crash remains under investigation by Kent police.