Two Sanborn County men were injured and one was charged with a felony in an early Sunday morning, Oct. 13 crash on a gravel road five miles north and five miles west of Mitchell.
Blake Hemminger, 23, of Letcher was driving a Ford F-250 north on 404th Avenue just after 2 a.m. Sunday morning and lost control near 247th Street. The vehicle swerved into the west ditch, overcorrected and swerved into the east ditch, rolled and came to rest back on the road.
Joseph Sandness, 28, and Patrick Johnson, 27, both of Woonsocket were thrown from the vehicle. Both men suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries and were transported by ambulance to Avera Queen of Peace Hospital in Mitchell. Neither were wearing seatbelts.
Two other passengers, Jackson Grassel, 29, of Woonsocket and Connor Sachtjen, 22, of Burke were also not wearing seatbelts, but were not ejected. Grassel and Sachtjen were uninjured.
Hemminger was wearing a seatbelt and suffered minor injuries. He was arrested for first-offense, misdemeanor DUI and vehicular battery, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and  $20,000 fine. He was released on bail from Davison County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court next month.
The SD Highway Patrol, Davison County Sheriff’s Office, Sanborn County Sheriff’s Office, Mitchell Ambulance and the Letcher Fire Department responded to the accident.