Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell and her daughter, Marielle, pictured here vacationing together, were involved in a serious car accident last month on their way back from Florida. Marielle, who had the most serious injuries, is back to school.

Photo courtesy of the Driskell family

Three weeks after a surviving a multi-car accident on their way back from a spring-break vacation to Florida, Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell and her daughter, Marielle, are easing back into regular life.

Marielle, who turns 16 this month, soon will be transitioning from a wheelchair to crutches after seriously injuring her foot in the April 9 accident. It's a welcome development for the family.

“We’re doing great, and Marielle’s back in school,” Gretchen Driskell said. “It’s a slow transition, but she’s doing a lot better.”

Marielle, a sophomore at Saline High School, and Gretchen, a real estate agent at Swisher Commercial, were returning from a weeklong trip to Florida when their lives were disrupted.

Marielle, a student driver, was driving north on I-75 in Cordele, Ga. on a stretch where construction narrowed the freeway to two lanes separated by a concrete barrier. A serious five-car crash on the southbound side of the freeway caused a tractor-trailer to slam into the concrete barrier, causing the barrier to come soaring through the air and slam into the Driskells’ vehicle.

Emergency responders rushed Marielle to a local hospital. Her foot was seriously injured, and she had femur and hip fractures. In the days after the accident, she had multiple operations on her foot.

Gretchen, who had less serious leg injuries, said doctors are waiting for swelling in Marielle’s foot to subside before offering a long-term prognosis.

But Marielle, who has been active on Facebook since shortly after the accident, is in good spirits. And Gretchen said they’ve received an flood of support in the days since the accident, particularly through social media.

“Overall it was pretty overwhelming experience as far as the outreach of support that Marielle and I got from our families and friends, and everybody in the community has been incredibly supportive,” she said. “It’s been really heartwarming.”

The accident has had other implications, as well. Driskell was attending a press conference this week in Lansing, where transportation officials were discussing road construction issues. One official made an off-hand reference to the danger presented by concrete kicked up from potholes.

“When he said that, I actually sort of flinched,” she said. “It was like, yeah I remember that flying debris.”

Contact AnnArbor.com’s Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com’s newsletters.