A Sweet Home man died last week after suffering injuries in a car crash on Oct. 20 near Jefferson.
James Virgil Pointer, 21, of Sweet Home died Oct. 30 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis.
According to Undersheriff Bruce Riley, Pointer, who also went by the name of Loop, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Janet Reppy, 39, of Lebanon early in the morning of Oct. 20. Two others, both also 21, were in the vehicle as well – Kelsey Truett of Sweet Home and Tyler Adams of Lebanon.
Riley said a deputy made initial contact with the vehicle pulled over to the side of the Santiam Bluffs Road shortly after 2 a.m. He said Reppy told the deputy she was taking one of the passengers home and they were lost.
Riley said the deputy did not observe any signs of intoxication or impairment, and left the scene, pulling over down the road to enter some data into his laptop. About 20 minutes later, he decided to return, Riley said.
The deputy discovered that the automobile had left the roadway and crashed into a tree near the corner of Mason and Santiam Bluffs roads, just outside Jefferson, Riley said. The car had caught fire and another passer-by was helping the passengers to get out. Jefferson firefighters responded but “no one was trapped, no extrication was needed,” he said.
“Preliminary investigation, based on the scene and a statement from the driver, suggests that excessive speed was a major contributor,” he said.
All four were taken to hospitals, the three passengers to Albany General and Reppy to Good Samaritan, he said, adding that Pointer was later transferred to Good Samaritan.
He said Pointer was sitting in the back seat behind the driver but investigators don’t know whether he had a seat belt on or not.
“That may or may not be determined,” he said. “This started out as a pretty routine serious crash. We cover and investigate a lot of serious crashes that don’t end up with a fatality like this.”