A Fulton Township man charged with seriously injuring his teenaged passenger when he drunkenly crashed his car into a roadside tree will have his case proceed to county court after waiving his preliminary hearing earlier this month.

Jere Rus Mendenhall III, of the 100 block of Balance Meeting Road, waived his preliminary hearing at Lancaster County DUI Central Court on Sept. 4 on charges of aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence, driving under the influence, purchase of an alcoholic beverage by a minor and two summary traffic offenses.

Mendenhall, 20, is accused of crashing his vehicle into a tree in the 100 block of Honeysuckle Road in Little Britain Township in the early evening hours of Aug. 31.

A 17-year-old boy inside Mendenhall’s vehicle suffered life-threatening injuries and severe head trauma as a result of the crash and was airlifted to a hospital. Two additional passengers who were also inside the vehicle at the time of the crash were not seriously injured.

Skid marks at the crash scene indicated that Mendenhall, who was traveling east along Honeysuckle Road, briefly entered oncoming traffic before swerving off the road and into the tree shortly before 6 p.m.

Police arrived at the scene to find Mendenhall outside the vehicle with a slow, sluggish gait and unable to answer questions as to what had happened.

Though Mendenhall told an officer on the scene that he hadn’t had “that much” alcohol, a preliminary breath test showed he had a breath alcohol content of 0.117%. An opened container of alcohol was also found inside the vehicle. Mendenhall subsequently consented to a blood draw.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Jack Daly filed the charges.

Assistant District Attorney Kyle Linardo will prosecute the case.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.