The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

April 20, 2009

Crash yields DWI

GOOD THUNDER — A man allegedly crashed his pickup, injuring his passenger, and then fled the scene before later being arrested in another vehicle that was stopped for an alcohol violation.

Blue Earth County Sheriff's deputies found a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup crashed into trees off a Beauford Township road at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Both the driver and a passenger were picked up by another vehicle.

The passenger, Dale Heins, 56, of Good Thunder was brought to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a bruised liver and had surgery for an eye injury.

Deputies were headed to the residence of the driver of the pickup in rural Good Thunder when they pulled over a vehicle that had left the Good Thunder bar for a traffic violation. The driver was cited for alcohol violations and a passenger in that vehicle was Jon Harold Kruggel, 28, who deputies said was driving the crashed pickup.

He was jailed and faces charges of third-degree DWI, criminal vehicular operation, no proof of insurance, and hit and run accident involving personal injury.

Deputies say he admitted to driving the pickup and was named as the driver by his passenger. A blood-alcohol test was taken, but the results weren't yet available.

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