Bend man arrested in Hwy. 97 DUII-drugs hit-and-run crash south of Terrebonne

OSP trooper catches suspect 5 miles away; other car's passenger injured

(Update: Adding mugshot, video)

TERREBONNE, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Bend man who fled an injury crash on U.S. Highway 97 south of Terrebonne Sunday afternoon was stopped by an Oregon State Police trooper five miles away and arrested on DUII-drugs, reckless driving, assault and other charges, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies and Redmond Fire medics responded around 12:25 p.m. to the reported three-vehicle crash involving a semi-truck at milepost 118, Sgt. Troy Gotchy said.

As units headed to the scene, they were told the driver who apparently caused the crash had fled the scene, still heading north, Gotchy said. Information on the silver Chevy Malibu was passed on to Oregon State Police, and a trooper spotted the car and stopped it at milepost 113, taking driver Daniel Dale Daughs, 59, into custody.

An investigation found Daughs was heading north when he crossed into the southbound lanes, Gotchy said. A Madras man driving a Chrysler Le Baron swerved to avoid the oncoming car, but hit the rear of it.

The Chrysler then continued into the northbound lanes and struck a semi-truck, becoming wedged underneath it, near the trailer’s rear tires, he said.

A woman in the Chrysler, Heather Summers, 32, also of Madras, was found lying on the ground nearby and was taken by Redmond Fire medics to St. Charles Redmond with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, Gotchy said.

No one else was injured in the crash, the sergeant said, and the semi-truck driver, from Brooklyn, N.Y., was able to drive away from the scene.

Gotchy said in an update later Sunday that an OSP drug recognition expert conducted an evaluation of Daughs and determined he was driving “under the influence of prescription drugs.”

Daughs was taken to the county jail on charges of DUII-drugs, third-degree assault, a felony charge of failure to perform the duties of a driver, reckless driving and three counts of reckless endangerment.

Three of Highway 97’s four lanes were blocked for about a half-hour, until the cars could be towed from the crash scene. ODOT also assisted.