Prineville man charged with DUII in 3-vehicle crash

(Update: Correcting Chin’s home state)

A 69-year-old Prineville man was arrested on DUII and other charges after a three-vehicle crash southeast of Prineville Thursday evening that sent a passenger in another vehicle to the hospital, Crook County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched around 6:10 p.m. to the reported crash at the intersection of Southeast Juniper Canyon Road and Paulina Highway, said sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Seaney.

Deputies determined that Kent Sawyer was driving his black 1991 Ford F-150 pickup from Prineville to his home in the Juniper Canyon Road area when he swung wide while turning from Paulina Highway onto Juniper Canyon Road, Seaney said.

During the turn, he sideswiped a van, then hit a black Ford Explorer head-on, according to the sergeant.

Sawyer reportedly kept driving until a passenger from the Explorer ran out and motioned for him to stop, Seaney said.

Sawyer was arrested and taken to the county jail, where he was booked on charges of DUII, reckless driving and seven counts of reckless endangering. He later was released under the jail’s matrix system, Seaney said.

A passenger in the Explorer, Nicholas Chinn, 32, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, was taken by Crook County Fire & Rescue ambulance to St. Charles Prineville with non-life-threatening injuries, Seaney said.

There were five other people in the SUV, including a 5-year-old and a 3 ½-month-old, all of whom were uninjured Seaney said. The driver and sole occupant of the van, Donald Maggard, 53, of Prineville, was uninjured, the sergeant said.

Traffic at the intersection was reduced to one lane for about a half-hour, until the vehicles involved could be moved. Sheriff’s deputies were assisted by Prineville police with traffic control.