Prineville-area woman crashes SUV 70 feet down embankment, is awakened by drone searching for her

(Update: Clarifying distance SUV traveled)

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Prineville-area woman who crashed her SUV about 70 feet down an embankment off Juniper Canyon Road early Saturday morning managed to get out and slept under a tree until a drone searching the area awakened her, Crook County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched around 6:30 a.m. after someone called 911 dispatchers to report they’d found an unoccupied SUV down an embankment near milepost 14 south of Prineville, Lt. Mitch Madden said.

Deputies found the Lexus SUV in a dry creek bed, but didn’t find anyone nearby, Madden said. They investigated the crash and determined the driver failed to negotiate a corner and went off the road, colliding with several large boulders and trees and apparently also rolling the SUV.

Madden said while the SUV went 70 feet down an embankment, it traveled 120 feet from where the driver left the road.

Deputies found shoe prints in the dirty nearby, heading away from the vehicle. They deployed a CCSO drone to check the surrounding area, and the sound of the drone awakened the 44-year-old woman, who contacted law enforcement.

The woman told deputies she was headed east on Juniper Canyon Road when she apparently fell asleep and crashed around midnight, Madden said. She was able to get out of the car but had no cellphone service and decided to sleep under a tree with a blanket until daylight.

Crook County Fire & Rescue medics evaluated the woman and took her to St. Charles Prineville.

Madden said a large alcoholic beverage bottle was found near where the driver had been sleeping, but he said in a news release that “deputies were not able to develop probable cause that the crime of DUII had occurred.”