Croton grad recovering from
drinking binge mishap
by Adam Stone
A teenager who graduated from Croton-Harmon High School last week
is recovering from head wounds he suffered after stumbling drunk into
a slow-moving car being driven by a friend outside a weekend drinking
party.
Casey Mack, 17, sustained injuries that left him in a coma late Friday
night when he was hit by a friend's 1998 Jeep as he was leaving a
graduation party at 6 Michaels Lane, where a parent of the teenager
throwing the bash was present.
"There was alcohol at the party and one of the parents was present,"
Croton Police Lieutenant Anthony Tramaglini said, though he declined
to answer several other questions because of an ongoing investigation.
Mack, who graduated a day before the accident, has been transferred
from the intensive care unit at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla
to a "regular room," Tramaglini said.
Mack's friends, according to police, drove the injured teen to Phelps
Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow following the accident before
he was transferred to the medical center.
The teenager was in a coma from about 11:30 p.m. Friday until 10 a.m.
Saturday. Police were notified of the accident by the hospital at
about 1 a.m.
Casey's father, Jack Mack, when interviewed by phone yesterday (Tuesday)
morning, said he last visited his son Monday.
"He was feeling better yesterday," Mack said.
Mack, who apologetically but abruptly terminated the telephone conversation
yesterday because he "can't be distracted by the media"
any longer, did say he expects his son out of the hospital by the
end of the week at the latest.
"I'm sorry, but I have to focus on him," Mack said before
hanging up the phone.
Investigators are trying to determine how Casey Mack obtained the
alcohol.
Police did interview the driver of the car.
Tramaglini would not say, or did not know, the blood-alcohol level
of Mack when he was struck, how many teens were at the graduation
party or where the boy was headed as he left the Michaels Lane graduation
bash.
He also did not know how Mack arrived at the party, whether drugs
were involved or the speed the Jeep was traveling at impact.
The speed limit on the road where the party was being held is 30 miles
per hour, but the Jeep was not traveling nearly that fast, Tramaglini
said.
Croton police's investigation, Tramaglini explained, is "still
in (its) infancy."
"Parents have to keep an eye out," he also said. "They
have to be careful."
