Dodge County sheriff’s deputies have filed charges against the driver in a single-vehicle accident that injured his passenger. A Milwaukee man is accused of driving while intoxicated and causing serious injury to his girlfriend in a rollover crash.

Deputies who investigated the car accident report that the 21-year-old driver was intoxicated and driving without a valid license when he lost control of his vehicle on an early spring morning. A witness told investigators that the driver’s car overturned on Highway 41 near Highway 49 and flipped over four to five times.

The Honda’s female passenger was thrown from the vehicle. Emergency responders transported her to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, where she was treated for serious injuries.

The complaint by sheriff’s deputies did not detail the extent of the girlfriend’s injuries or report whether the driver was also hurt in the rollover accident. There was no update reported for the woman’s medical condition since the time of the crash.

The driver told Dodge County deputies that he and his girlfriend had been at a birthday celebration in Oshkosh when he received an emergency phone call that his stepfather had passed away. The Milwaukee man claims he was driving that morning because his girlfriend complained of being too tired.

The man faces two counts of injury by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, a single count of operating a vehicle with a controlled substance causing great bodily harm and driving with an invalid license.

If the Milwaukee man is convicted of the combined charges, a maximum sentence of more than 38 years in prison is possible. The suspect was released on $1,000 bond.

Source: Beaver Dam Daily Citizen, “Milwaukee man charged with injuring girlfriend in accident,” Sept. 19, 2011