Man charged with DUI in accident

Man charged with DUI in accident

Mar. 10, 2001

A WHITE PONTIAC Sunbird sits on the highway at the M&M intersection Thursday after it was reportedly struck by a Cavalier driven by Roland Cantsee of Towaoc. The Bronco at left was not hit but was allegedly forced off the road by Cantsee’s vehicle. Cantsee faces several charges in the incident. No one was seriously injured.

By Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

A Towaoc man who has faced several DUI charges in the past is accused of causing a four-car accident late Thursday afternoon that sent two women to the hospital.
Roland Cantsee, 34, of Towaoc was driving north on U.S. Highway 160 in a Chevy Cavalier when he reached the intersection at County Road G, turned left in front of southbound traffic, and collided with a Pontiac Sunbird, said Colorado State Patrol Trooper Steve Nowlin.

The Pontiac was then struck from behind by a Ford Taurus, which was subsequently hit from behind by a gray Mazda, Nowlin said.

The driver of the Mazda, 26-year-old Laura Hamrick of Cortez, and her passenger, Sandra Sanford, 43, were transported to Southwest Memorial Hospital, where they were treated and released for mild to moderate injuries, he said.

“Hamrick received minor bruising and possibly a fractured rib and Sanford was treated for head contusions,” Nowlin said. “Those were the only two transported.”

Twenty-year-old Sarah Allsop and an infant, both of Towaoc, who were in the Sunbird that Cantsee hit, and Joane Lanyon, 33, of Cortez, driver of the Taurus, were not injured.
“Everybody was seat-belted and car-seated just right,” Nowlin said.

Roland Cantsee

Cantsee left the scene immediately after impact, going west on County Road G, Nowlin said. However, a few minutes later, Cantsee turned around and came back to the intersection, where he got out and was identified by witnesses.

Nowlin said Cantsee didn’t stick around for long, though, immediately jumping back in the car and leaving the scene without exchanging information with the drivers of the other vehicles and without inquiring about injuries. He headed south on 160/666.

“He left because of a lot of reasons,” Nowlin said. “Number one, he caused it; number two, he was drunk; and number three, he doesn’t have a driver’s license.”

Cantsee’s identity was not known to law-enforcement officers at that point, but they had a solid description of the vehicle with a license-plate number, Nowlin said.

After Cantsee left the scene, he reportedly forced one vehicle off the road further south by making a bad pass in a no-passing zone, Nowlin said. Montezuma County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve DeKruger received information from a dispatcher that led him right to Cantsee.
“Apparently he was told by a dispatcher that the owner of that vehicle had been involved in a complaint at an address near that location earlier that afternoon,” Nowlin said. “So it kind of all just fell together then.”

Cantsee had traveled east a mile on a private drive, where he drove the vehicle into some brush off the side of the road, Nowlin said.

He abandoned the vehicle on foot and apparently went into a home where he had been previous in the afternoon according to earlier reports of a disturbance at the house.
“That’s where Sgt. DeKruger goes in and contacts Mr. Cantsee,” Nowlin said. “He was arrested about 25 minutes after the crash.”

Cantsee appeared to be intoxicated but refused a blood-alcohol test and was taken to the Montezuma County Jail, Nowlin said.

He was charged with DUI, leaving the scene after causing injury, no insurance and driving a motor vehicle under revocation- alcohol-related offense, he said.

According to county-court records, Cantsee had been charged with DUI three times prior to Thursday’s incident. He pleaded guilty to DWAI in 1999, charges were dismissed by the district attorney’s office for an incident in July 2000, and one charge is still pending from Jan. 18, 2001.

Cantsee is also charged with menacing in a separate incident and is scheduled to appear in district court in April.