Sweet Home High School junior Tyler Plebuch was injured in a single-vehicle crash Saturday afternoon, Jan. 24, on North River Road.
Plebuch, 17, a varsity post player on the basketball team, is suffering from a severe concussion, said head varsity Coach Brandon Gaskey. As a result he apparently has a form of amnesia which has caused him to forget the past two years.
Plebuch is sidelined, but he stopped by practice Monday night anyway just to see how things were going, Gaskey said, and he didn’t know half of the players in the program.
“We’re all pretty worried about him,” Gaskey said. He will be out for an indefinite amount of time. ”The team’s really concerned about him too. It could be awhile.”
Gaskey said Plebuch had been really stepping up his game and was playing well recently.
Emergency crews were dispatched to the call in the 44600 block of North River Drive at about 1:30 p.m.
Plebuch had been driving a 2002 Mazda Protege east on North River when he apparently swerved to miss a squirrel, said Linn County Sheriff’s Sgt. Flint LeBard.
Plebuch woke up to someone talking to him from outside the vehicle.
The vehicle struck a guardrail and then came to rest high-centered on a large boulder, LeBard said.
He sustained minor injuries and was taken to the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Fire Hall where his parents were called, LeBard said.
He was aware of everything on the way to the hospital, Gaskey said. There he was diagnosed with a severe concussion and apparently began forgetting.
No citations had been issued as of Monday.