Man faces felony charges after accident severely injures passenger

MONTEVIDEO - A 26-year-old Milan man faces two felony charges of criminal vehicular operation after a man was seriously injured in August after being pinned inside a pickup truck.
Bantasar Kantito also faces two misdemeanor charges of fourth-degree driving while impaired and made his first appearance Monday in Chippewa County District Court. Kantito was released from jail after he posted a $30,000 bond.
The criminal complaint states that a Chippewa County sheriff’s deputy responded to the accident scene Aug. 9 at the junction of Minnesota Highway 7 and Chippewa County Road 33 north of Montevideo, where he discovered the top of a pickup truck had been pinned down and was crushing a man in the passenger seat. The passenger was later identified as Soses Dokoche, 21, of Milan.
A good Samaritan kept Dokoche’s airway open using a swimming snorkel before medical professionals arrived. A Montevideo fireman cut off the roof of the pickup and freed Dokoche, who was then airlifted to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale by North Memorial Air.
The criminal complaint also states that another man at the scene, later identified as Kantito, was panicking. The deputy noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled of alcohol.
Kantito was transported by ambulance to the Chippewa County-Montevideo Hospital emergency room, where a Montevideo police officer obtained a blood sample from Kantito that later showed a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent. The legal limit is 0.08.
According to the criminal complaint, the deputy interviewed Kantito, who said he and Dokoche bought a case of beer after work and began driving around. When the first case of beer ran out, they went to get another case. Kantito said he tried to make a left turn onto Chippewa County Road 33 when he turned too sharply and the truck went into the ravine.
The next day, the deputy spoke with a man who had gone to North Memorial Hospital to be with Dokoche. The man said Dokoche was having surgery on his spinal cord and that doctors said that Dokoche would never walk again.