The Fergus Falls Daily Journal

A Pelican Rapids man made his first court appearance on Monday for his part in a one-vehicle accident that ejected one of his passengers in April.

Joseph Thomas Marty, 26, has been charged with operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner.

Authorities allege that Marty’s careless driving on April 16 caused his passenger, Steven Green, to suffer a clavicle fracture and three rib fractures.

According to court records, law enforcement and emergency vehicles responded to the site of a pickup truck rollover on County Highway 118, west of U.S Highway 59, at about 11:30 p.m. on April 16.

When a sheriff’s deputy arrived, Green was lying in the road, where he had landed after being thrown from the truck. He was taken by ambulance to Lake Region Hospital in Fergus Falls and was later taken by helicopter to Sanford Hospital in Fargo.

At the scene, the deputy interviewed Marty, who allegedly admitted to being the truck’s driver. Marty allegedly blew a .085 in a preliminary blood alcohol test, so he was arrested and taken to jail, where he blew .07 on an official test.

In the coming days, the deputy interviewed Green and the two other passengers of the truck. Their stories were all essentially the same.

They told the deputy that the four of them had been drinking at a benefit in the Rothsay Powerhouse Bar earlier in the evening. They left the bar together in Marty’s truck, but as they were driving, Green’s hat flew off of his head and out the truck’s window.

Marty then allegedly stopped the truck, threw it into reverse and cranked the wheel hard, performing a “Rockford” style turn and driving the truck backwards for several feet at speeds approaching 40 m.p.h.

Marty drove the truck back to where Green’s hat had fallen.

Then, after Green had retrieved his hat, Marty attempted to perform another wheel-cranking turn, but this time the truck’s wheels caught on the road and the truck rolled over, throwing Green from the vehicle.