DCSO sergeant back on duty after wrong-way crash

(Update: Comments from sergeant, back on the job)

A speeding, wrong-way driver on the Bend Parkway slammed into a Deschutes County sheriff’s sergeant’s patrol car late Thursday night, sending the sergeant to the hospital with minor injuries and a Bend man to jail on DUII and other charges, police said.

Bend police said they learned around 11:47 p.m., that several callers informed 911 dispatchers a pickup truck was speeding north in the parkway’s southbound lanes near Hawthorne Avenue.

As word of the wrong-way driver was being broadcast, a Deschutes County sheriff’s patrol sergeant reported being hit head-on by the pickup, The two vehicles were blocking the southbound lanes of travel just north of Empire Avenue, police said.

Bend police units and Oregon state Police responded to investigate the crash, as did ODOT, which closed the southbound lanes and briefly the northbound ones as well, detouring traffic around the scene.

The sergeant was taken to St. Charles Bend with non-life-threatening injuries, officers said.

The sheriff’s office later Friday identified Sgt. Grant Johnstone as the struck driver and said on Facebook he “is doing well and recovering from minor injuries. He is expected to return to work this evening.”

As it turns out, the incident wound up giving Johnstone a small victory in light of one of his major goals as a sergeant.

“I like to look for DUIIs to try and stop them,” he said. “That’s one of my passions, and I happened to find this gentleman in this manner.”

Johnstone said said he did happen to spot Hughes’ car in time to take some evasive action, thus limiting his injuries.

When he got home that night, Johnstone said he kept thinking about what might have happened.

“The outcome could have been significantly worse, so that’s what went through my mind. It worked out the way that it did – I’m very gratfeful and thankful that it did, but you do think about the potential for ,pre significant injury, both to myself but, if he had continued down the road, to other drivers.”

The sergeant — who conducts crash reconstruction — said he’s passionate about stopping DUII drivers due to the aftermath he sees at the scene of such crashes and the impact on the victims’ families.

Johnstone was promoted to sergeant last fall, a five-year veteran of the force who previously spent 10 years with the Anchorage and Tualatin police departments.

The alleged wrong-way driver, Robert Michael Hughes, 59, of Bend, was uninjured and was arrested on charges of DUII, reckless driving, third-degree assault and reckless endangering.

Hughes was held on an initial $25,000 bail and released to a responsible third party around 9:30 a.m., pending a Feb. 8 court date, jail officers said.

The crash and investigation closed the southbound parkway for about two hours, police said.