Tylor Bates

A La Pine man was arrested Friday night after he allegedly fled a traffic crash in his car with three of his younger siblings inside, according to Oregon State Police.

A trooper was assisting pedestrians at U.S. Highway 97 at First Street shortly before 7 p.m. when an SUV that was stopped was struck from the rear by a 1998 Chrysler Sebring going about 25 mph. A girl inside the Chrysler yelled through an open window that she wanted out, the trooper said. But the car’s driver, Tylor Brenton Bates, 22 of La Pine, put the car in reverse and drove off at a high rate of speed, state police said.

The trooper pursued the Chrysler west on First, where a boy was seen running across the roadway; several people ran to help him. The Chrysler then turned north on Huntington Road, ran a red light and headed east onto Burgess Road, state police said. It was passing vehicles at a high rate of speed and went out of control as it turned north onto Skidgel Road. The car went into a ditch, through a couple of fences and hit a tree, according to state police. Bates was taken into custody.

The trooper found the driver’s 11-year-old sister holding a dog about 25 feet away from the vehicle, where she said she had run to get away from her brother. Bates had allegedly punched her in the face before the hit-and-run crash, state police said. The boy who had earlier run across the road was Bates’ 14-year-old brother who had jumped out of the moving vehicle. And another brother, 9, was also found uninjured. He, too, had gotten out of the moving car when the driver fled the rear-end crash.

Bates was lodged in the Deschutes County jail on accusations of DUII, reckless driving, felony hit and run, felony attempt to elude in a vehicle, five counts of recklessly endangering another person, fourth-degree assault and second-degree criminal mischief, state police said.