Man Charged with DWI After Driving Off the Road and Into a Sand Bunker

A 32-year-old Oak Park Heights man was charged with second-degree DWI after he allegedly drove his vehicle off the road and into a sand bunker at Dellwood Hills Golf Club.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a crash at about 8:45 p.m. July 16 near Dellwood Road and Hadley Avenue.

A driver passing by the area called dispatch and reported that he saw a man eventually identified as Ryan Robert Munson walking along Dellwood Road. The driver also saw two women standing near the woods, one of whom was holding a small child in her arms.

The driver asked if they were OK, and the women said they were in a crash and pointed to a truck that was on Dellwood Hills Golf Course.

When the officer arrived, Munson told the deputy that a man named “Charlie Vadnais” stole his father’s truck and then called him when it got stuck on the golf course because he needed help getting it out.

Munson told the deputy that “Vadnais” then ran away when he arrived to help him out.

A woman who was in the vehicle at the time of the crash told the deputy that she was at a beach with Munson, another woman and that woman’s 2-year-old son, the complaint states. The woman told the deputy that Munson was driving the truck eastbound on Dellwood Road when he hit a chain barricade across a driveway of a road that led to the golf course.

The woman said Munson then drove onto the golf course fairway, where he made a U-turn and became stuck in a bunker on the golf course. The woman reiterated that Munson was driving and the child was in a car seat in the back seat of the truck, the complaint states.

The deputy then walked the golf course and saw several deep tire marks on the golf course fairway. The deputy reported that the sod was very heavily damaged and that he saw four tire tracks on the driveway, leading onto the golf course, down the fairway and back toward the driveway into the bunker, where the pickup truck had come to rest.

The child’s mother eventually admitted that Munson had been driving the vehicle, and stated that she did not want to tell the deputy, because the Munson had recently been released from jail, the complaint states.

When confronted with the women’s stories, Munson admitted to driving the vehicle and said that he swerved to avoid a deer when he hit the metal chain and drove onto the golf course fairway, the complaint states. Munson told the deputy that he made a U-turn on the course and got stuck in the bunker.

Munson allegedly failed field sobriety tests and blew a .13 on a breath test,

Owners of the golf course estimate that the crash caused about $3,000.

According to court records, Munson was arrested for DWI on March 16, 2008 in Washington County and his license had been revoked as a result of that incident on April 14, 2008.

Munson also faces felony property damage charges as a result of the crash.