By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — The mother of two toddlers who were critically injured in a fatal car crash earlier this year said the children are showing significant progress in their recovery.

“They’re doing really well,” said Whitney Dipley, 20, whose children, Ashley Myers, 3, and James Myers, Jr., 21 months, suffered head trauma and other injuries when the car in which they were passengers Aug. 21 went airborne and crashed in the parking lot of the Dollar General Store at 816 E. 15th St.

“I found out my son is able to swallow, and he’ll probably be off the feeding tube by the time he comes home,” she said Saturday. She said doctors have said the boy might be able to come home in January. The girl most likely will not be able to come home that soon, she said.

Family members organized a benefit for the children’s parents on Saturday afternoon at the Modern Day Veterans’ Hall in Carthage.

The children’s paternal grandfather, Marion Myers, said the state is providing for the children’s medical needs, but the family is trying to raise money to help pay for travel expenses and to purchase handicapped-accessible items for a home.

“Basically, we’re raising money for transportation back and forth to see the kids, and for things they might need when they get back home,” he said.

The children’s father, James Myers Sr., 22, has been staying with the children, who are hospitalized in St. Louis.

Both children were comatose for several weeks and are expected to be wheelchairbound because of the injuries. James Jr. is in the Ranken Jordan pediatric hospital, while Ashley was moved to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital following complications from surgery.

According to police reports, the parents were walking home with the children from the Wal-Mart at 15th Street and Range Line Road when a friend, Roy L. Williams Jr., stopped and offered them a ride. Also with the family were an aunt of the children, Kassie Myers, 19, and her boyfriend, James D. Mitchell II.

All six piled into Williams’ light-blue, 1994 Lincoln Town Car, with Kassie Myers and Mitchell up front, and the others in the back seat.

Police believe alcohol may have contributed to the crash. According to the police report, the car jumped the railroad tracks at 15th Street and Indiana Avenue before it snapped a utility pole, crashed into a parked vehicle and flipped over in the parking lot of the Dollar General Store.

Williams crawled out of the vehicle, but was pronounced dead that night at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin.

Police said none of the adults were wearing seat belts, and the children were not riding in child safety seats.