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Driver charged with DUI in Towanda Barnes crash

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buy this photo Northbound traffic is reduced to a single lane following an accident south of the intersection of Oakland Avenue and Towanda Barnes Road Wednesday (July 25, 2007) in Bloomington. (Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)

BLOOMINGTON - A 29-year-old Bloomington man was nearly five times over the legal alcohol limit when his SUV collided head-on with another car and a another vehicle late Wednesday afternoon on the city's far east side, police said.

Stephen Stumpf, of the 1300 block of Bancroft Drive, was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol following the crash about 5:25 p.m. just south of Oakland Avenue and Towanda Barnes Road.

Stumpf and the driver of a Subaru wagon, Mark Walbert, 52, of the 19400 block of Valley Trail Road, were both in stable condition Thursday at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center. The driver of a Pontiac Grand Prix, Kevin Bogle, 23, of LeRoy, was taken to BroMenn Regional Medical Center, where his condition wasn't available Thursday.

Bloomington Police spokesman David White said Stumpf's blood was tested at the hospital, and he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.388. The legal limit to drive in Illinois is 0.08.

Stumpf was driving north in the left, southbound lane of Towanda Barnes when his Jeep SUV collided head-on with the Grand Prix, White said. It wasn't immediately clear how the Subaru wagon was hit, but fire officials had to extricate the driver.

"Had there been a passenger in the Subaru, we'd definitely be talking about a fatal," White said.

It also wasn't immediately known where Stumpf had been prior to the crash, or when he turned onto Towanda-Barnes, White said.

Bogle apparently realized the SUV was coming directly at him because his vehicle left between 20 and 25 feet of skid marks, White said.

Glass, metal, plastic and fluids from the vehicles covered much of Towanda-Barnes following the crash that forced the temporary closure of the southbound lanes.

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