Oregon State Police arrested a 58-year-old Tillamook County woman Wednesday on a variety of charges after a three-car collision on U.S. Highway 101 near the summit of Cape Foulweather sent three people to hospitals, closed the highway for hours and drew a response from nearly every emergency agency in Lincoln County.
Jay Lynn Kruse, 58, of Beaver, Ore. is charged with drunken driving, assault, reckless driving, recklessly endangering and criminal mischief, according to state police records.
A probable cause affidavit filed Thursday in Lincoln County circuit court said Kruse had a blood alcohol level of .17 – more than twice the level to legally drive – and told a state police trooper that she had drank most of a pint of vodka by 10 o’clock that morning.
State police said Kruse was driving north about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and passing other northbound drivers in the southbound lane when her Ford Mustang collided head-on into a Toyota Prius. The Mustang rolled for several hundred feet before coming to rest on its top, police said.
The first Prius was struck from behind by a second southbound Prius pushing the first vehicle across the northbound lane of the highway and 75 feet down the bank. The Lincoln County technical rope team was called to rescue the 82-year-old driver of that car, who was taken to Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport with injuries.
The driver of the second Prius and two passengers were not injured, police said.
A witness also told investigators that Kruse was driving at least 100 mph when she collided head-on with the first Prius.
Kruse was taken to Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, checked for injuries, released and then arrested. One of her two passengers was also taken to the Newport hospital.
The probable cause affidavit filed by Trooper Kelly Katsikis said Lincoln County Sheriff Senior Deputy Bruce Maguire was the first officer to get to the Mustang and found two of Kruse’s passengers laying in the road.
“The driver was still in the vehicle and smelled strongly of the order of an alcoholic beverage,” Katsikis’ affidavit said. “Maguire told me the passengers told him the driver of the Mustang, Kruse, had been drinking and they were fighting prior to the crash.”
According to Oregon court records, it is the fifth time Kruse has been charged with driving under the influence stretching back to 1991 in Washington County.
