Truck Plows Through Sauk Centre Cemetery Wall, Damages Grave Markers

(KNSI) – A Long Prairie man is accused of driving drunk before crashing his pickup through a stone wall and into a Sauk Centre cemetery.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office says the pickup was headed east on County Road 17 around 3:00 a.m. on Saturday when it failed to stop at the T-intersection, went through the stone wall at Greenwood Cemetery and struck several grave markers before coming to a stop.

A cemetery representative estimates the damage at about $50,000.

When officers arrived, the truck was empty. Around the same time as the crash, dispatchers had received a 911 call that disconnected. When they called back, a man answered and said there was no problem.

A short time later, a Sauk Centre police officer found the 19-year-old driver northeast of the crash near 390th Avenue in Sauk Centre Township. Investigators say his phone was the one that called 911, and he owns the pickup left at the scene.

He was arrested and taken to the hospital in Sauk Centre to be checked for injuries before being booked into the Stearns County Jail. He was released Monday morning.

Jail records list three DWI-related counts against him, including third-degree driving while impaired with one aggravating factor.

It isn’t clear whether he has been formally charged. KNSI News has a policy of not releasing the names of those involved in alcohol-related crashes until they appear in court.

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