A 20-year-old man was drunk when he crashed his car into the back of a tractor on a northwestern Minnesota road and killed his father in the car with him, according to charges.
Chance Eugene Keezer was charged Wednesday in Mahnomen County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision Tuesday around sunset that killed Robert Keezer, 53, of Mahnomen.
Keezer posted bail and remains free ahead of a Monday court appearance. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
According to the criminal complaint and state records:
A deputy was sent to the crash scene along Hwy. 200 in Marsh Creek Township near the border separating Mahnomen and Norman counties. He saw Chance Keezer inside the damaged car holding his father.
Ambulance crew members directed Chance Keezer to go sit on the grass and tended to Robert Keezer before he was declared dead at the scene.
Robert Keezer had a valid license at the time, but he would only have been to drive if he had abstained from illicit drugs or alcohol, a state Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said Friday.
The deputy smelled the odor of alcohol coming from Chance Keezer, who denied that he had been drinking. He was arrested after the deputy administered a preliminary breath test and measured his blood alcohol content at 0.181%, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
