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GREENSBORO - Drew Gardner stopped his mom Tuesday morning as she was heading off to work.

"Wait, Mom, I want to give you a great big hug," he said.

It was a whole day later, in the intensive care unit of Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem, before Megan Gardner got another hug from her son.

This hug used his left arm only - his right was immobilized, stuck with IVs, and too painful to move because of a broken collarbone, eight fractured ribs and two collapsed lungs. His head was immobilized by a cervical collar because of skull fractures.

Drew hadn't been conscious since 2:40 p.m. Tuesday, when a black van ran off South Lindell Road and crashed through 40 yards of woods and then hit him.

On Wednesday morning, he woke up and gestured to his mom with that left hand. Gardner leaned toward him, trying to see what he was struggling to say around a mouthful of tubes. She still doesn't know the words he used, but he got his message across.

"He pulled my head toward him and put his arm around me and hugged me," Gardner said from Drew's hospital room Friday afternoon.

Gardner was relieved that her son was able to communicate with a gesture - brain damage was a major fear - "but that hug, it was the best," she said.

Drew has been sedated and unconscious for most of the time since the accident, and it will be a long time before he doesn't need sedation. The 12-year-old remains in critical condition, but is stable and healing, Gardner said.

"That hug is going to have to sustain me for now," Gardner said.

Crash investigators with the Greensboro Police Department determined that the van's driver, Michael Charles Parks, was going about 28 mph when he left the road.

Witnesses told police that Parks ran the stop sign at the intersection of South Lindell Road and Walker Avenue, then drove off the left side of the road where Lindell curves to the east.

"He basically traveled in a straight line right off the road," said Investigator S.P. Gladieux. "After the collision with the child, there doesn't appear to be any braking, and what brought the vehicle to its final resting position was a collision with a tree."

Parks was charged with driving while impaired and driving with a revoked license. Police submitted a sample of Parks' blood to the State Bureau of Investigation for analysis, and more charges against him are likely, Gladieux said.

Parks has one previous conviction of driving while impaired and two DWI charges that were dismissed.

Parks declined to comment when reached at his home on Thursday.

Gardner said her son, "normal kid Drew," often played at Lindley Park with friends from the neighborhood, including Taylor Rhynehardt, the friend who was with Drew on Tuesday.

"It seems like - it seemed like - a great place to play," Gardner said.

The boys skateboarded, rode their bikes and did whatever boys do.

At the speed the van was traveling, it probably took about one second to reach the bottom of the ravine where the boys were playing.

"They most likely heard the vehicle, but never had an opportunity to see it until it was basically right on top of them," Gladieux said.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com