A driver who left the scene of a serious Highway 63 crash last October is facing charges for his role in a crash that seriously injured another driver.

Cole Christopher Clapp, 31, pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of criminal vehicular operation for causing substantial bodily harm and a misdemeanor for driving with a suspended license.

According to a court complaint, the Minnesota State Patrol, the Mower County Sheriff’s Office and other emergency responders responded to a two-vehicle crash with injuries on Highway 63 in Racine Township around 11 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2016.

The reporting trooper arrived to find the victim being tended to by other emergency personal, while the 2012 Ford Escape he’d been driving appeared to be split in half on the road’s shoulder.

A burned 2002 Chevrolet Silverado was also in the east ditch, and it was found to belong to Cole Christopher Clapp.

Markings on the roadway determined Clapp’s Silverado was traveling north in the southbound lane when the vehicles collided. A witness said he passed Clapp’s Silverado traveling at about 80 mph, and he looked in his rearview mirror a few minutes later and saw flames coming from the crash.

He turned around and went to the scene tended to the victim’s wounds until emergency responders arrived.

But Clapp had fled the scene, and law enforcement searched a nearby cornfield, called in an Austin Police Department K-9 and used a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter to search for him until about 1 a.m.

On Oct 20, a female called dispatch to say she knew Clapp, who arrived at her house in Stewartville at 11:30 p.m. Oct. 19 and told her he’d been in a crash, fled and saw cops everywhere.

He asked her to report the Chevrolet stolen. Clapp told her he’d rolled his truck and had a cut on his arm and the back of his head.

He left shortly after, but the woman said he called back the next day saying he thought he killed somebody in the crash. He later admitted to the woman he was driving during the crash, and she encouraged him to turn himself in.

Law enforcement went to Clapp’s written address in Grand Meadow, but he wasn’t there. Clapp’s license was suspended at the time of the crash.

The victim had been coming home from his grandson’s football game and recalled the Silverado was all “over the road,” giving him little time to react before the crash, though he tried avoiding the oncoming car.

The victim was slated to undergo several surgeries from his injuries, which included a broken nose, a brain bleed, spinal fractures, face and head lacerations, a bulged disc, a chipped tooth, and nerve, muscle and tissue damage to his arms.

Clapp is next due in court on May 26 for a pretrial and Jun 5 for a trial.