Father facing multiple charges in serious injury crash on Santiam Pass

Photo Courtesy OSP

A Ford Explorer wound up in the lava as the result of a late night wreck near the junction of Hwy. 20 and 126 last Saturday.

SANTIAM PASS: A Bandon area man is facing multiple charges following an alcohol-involved serious injury single vehicle crash that occurred overnight at the Santiam Pass junction of Highway 126 and Highway 20. The man and his 5-year old son received non-life threatening injuries for which they are being treated at a Bend hospital.

According to Oregon State Police (OSP) Senior Trooper Jason Hansen, the wreck occurred on June 8th at approximately 5 a.m., when the OSP and local emergency responders were notified of a single vehicle crash scene spotted off the highway at the Santiam Junction in Linn County. Upon arrival, emergency responders found an adult male and 5-year old boy with possible serious injuries in a 1994 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle. After removal from the vehicle, they were taken by ground ambulance to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend for treatment.

Initial investigation indicates that on Friday evening, June 7th, Jeremy Lee Ward, 31, left his Bandon home with his 5-year old son, Troy Ward, in the Ford Explorer. The child’s mother told OSP she contacted Coos County Sheriff’s Office because she was concerned for her son’s welfare and that the father, had been drinking before leaving in the vehicle.

Hansen estimates that between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., the vehicle was eastbound when it traveled off the highway without braking and launched off a gravel berm, flying in the air for about 25 yards before crashing down an embankment onto lava rocks. Neither occupant is believed to have been using safety restraints.

A passing motorist spotted the crash scene.

Jeremy Ward was cited by OSP to appear in Linn County Circuit Court charged with DUII, Reckless Driving, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Assault in the Third Degree, Driving While Suspended, Driving Uninsured, and Failure to Seat Belt a Child Passenger.

The Black Butte Police Department, Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District, and the Black Butte Fire Department assisted the State Police at the scene.