Man charged with felony criminal endangerment following rollover

Aaron Wayne Taylor was charged with felony criminal endangerment after the van he was allegedly driving in May rolled off the road and threw his infant son and himself from the vehicle trapping his wife and daughter in the van all while driving under the influence of marijuana and methamphetamine, according to court records.

The Phillips County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Highway Patrol were contacted by Malta’s Coleen Kautt stating she had just witnessed a car crash on Highway 363. She said she observed a maroon colored van traveling east on the highway, coming toward her. The van started to swerve, correct, and swerve again before heading into a ditch, striking a culvert and becoming airborne. The vehicle flew over an irrigation ditch and landed on the driver’s side front end and Kautt — who had pulled over on the side of the highway to avoid being hit — watched on as a child ‘flew out the back window of the van.’

The van then went into a sideways roll and the adult, male driver (Taylor) fell out of the driver’s side window. Taylor landed on his back and then rolled over to his hands and knees.

Kautt, who is an EMT, ran over to the male and noticed a large laceration on his arm. She told Taylor not to move. More vehicles started approaching the crash site and then Kautt, who lives nearby, went to her house to grab her EMT bag.

Kautt returned to the van and found an adult female unbuckled from her seatbelt, but trapped in the driver’s seat. Kautt then noticed an infant girl — appearing to be around two years of age — in the back seat of the car, crying as she was belted in a child’s seat. Sitting next to the little girl sat an empty car seat. Kautt checked the baby, who was crying and found a small bump on her head. The child that was thrown from the car when the vehicle started spinning — a 3-year-old boy —was found lying face down on some rocks in the ditch and he was whimpering. Kautt found a large bump on the boy’s head as well as a laceration on his left elbow. Another bystander stayed with the boy as Kautt went back to check on the injured adults (the children’s parents.)

The infant girl had stopped crying and was alert by this point. The adult female said she was having trouble breathing and stated that her hip was hurting. Kautt applied an oxygen mask to the woman and went back to the boy laying in the ditch who had begun to move around and moan. She put a C-collar on the boy’s neck and assessed his breathing. Kautt went to apply a C-collar to Taylor. Shortly thereafter, a Phillips County Ambulance, members of the Malta Volunteer Fire Department, Montana Highway Patrol and Phillips County Undersheriff Burt Peigneux had arrived at the scene.

At this point, Kautt asked Taylor if he had been drinking and he said he had not, but added that he had smoked marijuana about two hours prior to the accident. He also admitted to being the driver of the van.

The Malta Fire Department members extracted the woman from the van and she was taken to the Phillips County Hospital.

A trooper from the Montana Highway Patrol arrived at the hospital where a nurse was working on the woman. The trooper identified the woman as Aubrey Barnes and requested blood be taken from her. The trooper then found Taylor who was laying on a stretcher, alert and responsive. The trooper observed that Taylor’s eyes were very dilated and had reddening of conjunctiva (the thin membrane that covers part of the front surface of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelids). The report states that Taylor was talkative and energetic and when the trooper asked him what happened, Taylor stated that while he was driving, he reached down for a cigarette and had driven the van off the road, before getting back on the road and over-correcting, causing the vehicle to roll. The trooper asked for consent for a blood sample from Taylor and Taylor agreed. All the blood taken from the two adults was sealed and placed in blood kit shipping bags. The trooper took the samples back to Havre and they were mailed to the Montana State Crime Lab. Taylor’s toxicology report indicated that he had the Schedule I dangerous drugs THC and Methamphetamine in his system.

Taylor pleaded not guilty to the count of felony criminal child endangerment in his initial court appearance the last week in June.