Driver, 18, arrested in crash that killed Madras couple
An 18-year-old Madras man faces two counts of criminally negligent homicide, DUII and reckless driving charges after his SUV apparently ran a stop sign and struck a car south of Madras Thursday evening, killing a Madras couple, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies said Friday.
The crash at SW Dover Lane and Bear Drive was reported around 5:15 p.m. to Frontier Regional Dispatch Center in Condon, said sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Erickson. Deputies, medics and fire crews were dispatched, while Oregon State Police assisted at the scene with the investigation and crash reconstruction, he said.
The investigation found a 2002 white Chevy Cavalier driven by Lukas Daniel Hanson, 32, of Madras, was heading east on Dover Lane, accompanied by his wife, Diane Elizabeth Hanson, 34.
Their car was hit on the passenger side by a green 1999 GMC Yukon driven by Isaul Alberto Ruiz-Dominguez, of Michoacan, Mexico, who was heading north on Bear Drive and the driver “more likely than not went through the intersection … without stopping at a stop sign,” Erickson said in a news release.
The SUV had three male passengers, he added.
Ruiz-Dominguez was taken to St. Charles-Madras for treatment of minor injuries, then booked into the county jail in Madras on two counts of criminally negligent homicide, DUII, reckless driving and a misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended or revoked license.
On an unrelated matter, The Bulletin reported Ruiz-Dominguez appeared in court Friday on a probation violation stemming from an earlier incident, in which he was charged with failure to perform the duties of a driver and second-degree criminal mischief.
He pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and the failure to perform charge was dropped, the newspaper said.
