Two injured in Saturday car crash
Published 7:55 am Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Two individuals suffered non-life threatening injuries after a pickup truck they were in crashed into an embankment on Saturday.
According to Mower County Sgt. Investigator Steven Sandvik, Mower County deputies responded to the accident at 1:22 p.m. on Saturday on Highway 105 near 175th Street in Austin Township. The pickup truck’s driver, Dakota James Robertson, 19, of Austin, was changing a song on his cell phone, which was connected to the Bluetooth stereo of the vehicle, when the car went into the embankment.
The Austin Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol, and Gold Cross Ambulance Service assisted at the scene.
The state patrol accident report said Robertson and the passenger, 16-year-old Morgan Kay Tufte, both sustained non-life threatening injuries and were transported to Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin.
According to Sandvik, a white powdery substance was found in the vehicle. Robertson allegedly said he had used marijuana before the accident and admitted to prior cocaine use. A search warrant was granted for law enforcement to obtain a blood sample.
The doctor who examined Tufte said her injuries, a 1 ½- to 2 inch-laceration on her forehead and a black eye, constituted “substantial bodily harm,” Sandvik said.
Robertson was arrested after his release from the hospital and taken to the Mower County Jail. He could face possible charges of drug possession and criminal vehicular operation-bodily harm.