SAXONBURG — For Joe Smithco of Cranberry Township, there were small victories but no winners this week.

Smithco’s 73-year-old father, also named Joseph Smithco, has been hospitalized in a quadriplegic state since a collision on Route 8 in Middlesex Township three months ago.

For the first time since then, the elder Smithco was able to eat a solid food, a cracker, on his own Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Gina Machi of Gibsonia, the 18-year-old who Smithco collided with, appeared before District Judge Sue Haggerty to pass on her right for a preliminary hearing related to the crash.

Machi is charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

Her case now moves on to Butler County Court for possible trial.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Lope said he and District Attorney Richard Goldinger agreed to drop the only felony charge Machi initially faced: aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI.

Lope explained the DUI must be the definitive cause of a collision to prove that crime. And although prosecutors believe there is enough evidence to meet the standard needed for a preliminary hearing, the charge might not have met the reasonable doubt standard mandated by a jury trial.

According to police reports, on Aug. 25 Smithco pulled out of the south entrance of the CoGo’s parking lot in Middlesex Township when Machi’s southbound Mercedes sport utility vehicle collided with the driver’s side of his Chevy S-10 truck.

Smithco was thrown out of his truck and landed 65 feet away. Machi was partially thrown from her vehicle, which ended on its passenger side.

Investigators, led by Middlesex Police Patrolman Conrad Pfeifer, have asserted Machi was impaired by marijuana and the anti-anxiety medications nordiazepam, oxazepam and temazepam at the time of the collision.

Machi made no statements in court Wednesday. Her attorney, David Cercone of Pittsburgh, said she still is recovering from her own injuries, which included a broken pelvis and ankle.

Of the case, Cercone said only that prosecutor’s decision to withdraw the felony was “appropriate” given evidence from a reconstruction of the collision. And he said his client, who is free on $5,000 unsecured bail, is prepared to face the remaining charges.

Afterward, the younger Smithco said his family holds no ill will toward Machi.

“There are absolutely no winners in this situation,” he said.

Smithco said injuries to his father’s spinal cord have left him what doctor’s call a “functioning quadriplegic.” For weeks after the collision, Smithco was fed through a medical tube. He only recently was able to start eating soft foods. And on Tuesday he was able to hold a cracker long enough to eat it.

“That’s big,” his son said. “We’ll take those small victories.”

Smithco does not remember the crash, but has good memories of before and after, his son said.

A retired ironworker and father of five, Smithco of West View was working on restoring a car the day of the collision. He left the nearby Elder’s Garage to pick up lunch at the convenience store.

“Crackers and Gatorade,” his son said.

Smithco said, ironically, his father spent years as a race car hobbyist, driving car No. 85 at numerous venues.

“He is phenomenal with a wheel ... as good as any driver you’ve ever seen,” the younger Smithco said. “He went 72 years without having an accident.”