An 18-year-old Maricopa man has been formally charged in connection with a February crash that left a local 17-year-old girl permanently disabled and hospitalized for months.

The news comes just two days after another fatal wreck on State Route 238, the rural highway that Smith-Enke Road turns into west of the city, where head-on crashes are common because long passing zones and inept drivers leave little margin for error.

Jeremiah Irving faces felony charges of aggravated assault, endangerment, aggravated DUI and reckless driving, according to the Maricopa Police Department. Long-form charges were filed against Irving on Aug. 6, following a six-month investigation. Police said he was not arrested at the time the charges were filed, and the case is now moving through the court system.

The Feb. 8 crash happened on SR 238 when Irving’s vehicle reportedly crossed into oncoming traffic and struck another car head-on. The crash involved four vehicles and sent six people to the hospital, including five players from the Maricopa Pumas youth football team and the teen girl who was driving the other car.

The mother of that 17-year-old, Debi McDaniel, said her daughter suffered catastrophic injuries and has undergone 19 surgeries since the crash. Once an early high school graduate and college student, McDaniel’s daughter is now permanently bedridden and under 24-hour medical care. 

McDaniel has spoken publicly about her family’s ordeal and the mounting medical bills exceeding $1 million, as well as new legal claims she says have deepened her distress. “The force of the impact almost tore her body in half,” McDaniel wrote in a social media post last month. “I have watched her almost die too many times.” 

Irving was a former football player for Sequoia Pathway Academy, a Maricopa charter school whose football program later shuttered after declining student participation. He is schedule to be arraigned later this month.  

McDaniel, meanwhile, said she continues to advocate for changes in Arizona’s insurance and victim protection laws, hoping that “no other family will have to live through what we have.”