WAUSAU — Police say an intoxicated driver left the scene of a crash in Colby, drove several miles and crashed again before being arrested on drunken driving and hit-and-run charges.
Elliot S. Graves, 36, of Abbotsford appeared Monday in Marathon County Circuit Court, where he faces two counts each of hit and run causing injury and OWI causing injury.
Colby/Abbotsford police were called at 6:34 p.m. Sunday to the intersection of Division Street and Spence Street for a report of a hit-and-run crash where the driver of a red pickup rear-ended a vehicle stopped at a stop sign before fleeing the scene. Two passengers in the stopped vehicle were injured and were transported to a local hospital for treatment, according to police.
Five minutes later, officers were called to a single-vehicle crash on Huckleberry Road in the town of Hull, where they discovered Graves behind the wheel of a red pickup with significant front-end damage, according to the incident report. Graves, whose vehicle was in the ditch, initially told police he swerved to avoid a deer. After allegedly failing field sobriety tests Graves submitted a breath test, which indicated a blood alcohol concentration of 0.22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit for driving in Wisconsin.
Court documents show Graves was convicted twice before of drunken driving, first in 2005 and again in 2012.
Graves, who is jailed on a $2,500 cash bond, is due in court Nov. 14 for a preliminary hearing in the case.
