TOWNSEND — Following Wednesday morning's fatal wrong-way driving crash, Broadwater County Sheriff Nick Rauser had some insights into dealing with the aftermath of the crash.
“If you do this job long enough, you kind of become hardened to those things, but when you start to talk to people who don't see it all the time or deal with it, and you hear those emotions, it kind of brings you back to reality,” Rauser says.
Watch Meghan Elaine's interview with Sheriff Nick Rauser after deadly wrong-way crash:
Calls rushed into dispatch early Wednesday morning, reporting a car driving the wrong way on Interstate 90 a couple of miles past Wheat Montana, in Broadwater County.
The wrong-way driver was 56-year-old Robert Askins of Spokane, Washington.
Askins reportedly turned around in the eastbound lanes, eventually slamming into another car driven by 50-year-old Jason Sullivan, who was from Basin, Montana. Both men died at the scene.
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“It hits close to home. I didn't know Jason but worked in Jefferson County for a while. I have coworkers and people I know over there calling me. They’re upset. And I can't imagine how his family feels right now,” Rauser says.
Sheriff Rauser was on the scene Wednesday morning and tried to rescue both dogs inside Askins' vehicle.
“I looked, and I could see the one breathing, so I hurried up and had fire get the car apart so we could get the dog out. And then I had a deputy rush that one to a vet,” Rauser says.
One of the dogs had to be put down due to its injuries. The other dog survived and is being adopted out by Heart of the Valley animal shelter.
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Sheriff Rauser isn't sure just how many people drive the wrong way in Broadwater County.
“It’s hard to put a number on that because we probably don't catch all of them. I asked a couple of our deputies last night, and they’ve had four. Two of those were DUIs, and they went to jail, and the other two did not speak English,” says Rauser.
Just how many wrong-way driving incidents are drug or alcohol related?
“I would say too many; a lot of them are drug and alcohol-related,” Rauser says.
Montana Highway Patrol says they suspect drugs were involved in Wednesday's crash.
Sheriff Rauser says they will know more after the autopsies.
“My heart goes out to the families, both families. I can't imagine, just, any of them in the situation they're in and what they're experiencing right now. It's tough enough to lose a family member, but in a situation like that I think it's even harder,” Rauser says.
