Butler County Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a hit-and-run driver whose vehicle totaled another car and injured its driver last Saturday, June 2, on Hamilton Eaton Road near Somerville.

Caitlyn Rogers, 22, of New Miami, was driving home from a fishing trip at Catfisherman’s Paradise in Camden, Ohio, when she was hit by a metallic blue Dodge Dakota pickup truck at approximately 7:45 p.m.

After leaving the Catfisherman’s Paradise fishing lake around 7:35 p.m., she was headed north when her car was struck by the southbound truck at 6111 Hamilton Eaton Road, according to the police report.

The truck’s driver never stopped, after striking Rogers’ black 2003 BMW 325i, leaving the scene with his vehicle’s engine smoking and without speaking to Rogers.

Rogers called 911 at 7:50 p.m., and a Butler County Sheriff deputy arrived at 8:35 p.m. The officer spent 65 minutes at the scene.

Traveling with her boyfriend, Troy Rhymer, and cousin, Leslie Hoelle, Rogers said her two passengers were OK, but she suffered a concussion, a sprained neck and a bruise on her face. She took herself to Bethesda Butler hospital on Sunday morning. All three people in the BMW were wearing their seatbelts, according to the incident report.
Three witnesses who were standing near the scene of the accident told Rogers the truck’s driver was a white male with short hair and a goatee, she said.

“I saw him come flying around a curve, probably going about 60 or 65,” Rogers said. “Then, he just started swerving all over the double yellow line.”

To prevent a head-on collision, Rogers veered onto a gravel driveway in a field.

“I turned and like drifted. I mean, it was pretty good corrective driving,” Rogers said with a laugh.

The truck came off Rogers’ side of the road, went airborne over a ditch and hit her car on the rear end of the driver side. Hoelle, the passenger in the backseat, was sitting on the passenger side.

A baby car seat was in the backseat on the driver side, but it was empty.

Rogers said the Dakota spun its tires for a second but never stopped. She said the three witnesses, who were in the field at the time of the accident, had to scramble out of the way to avoid being hit by the truck as it left.

The area is wide open without much housing around. Rogers said the field she drove into had only a barn.

The incident report said the Dakota was traveling at an unsafe speed. Rogers’ car was still moving at approximately 35 miles per hour when it was hit and the road was dry at the time of the crash, according to the report.

Rogers says the truck that hit her car has heavy front-end damage.

Rogers’ car was listed as totaled, but she’s trying to fix it up enough to make it drivable for the next couple weeks, until she’s able to purchase a new one.

“I only have liability insurance, so I was really upset,” Rogers said. “I just bought this car a couple months ago, and now it just got taken away.”

Police are continuing their search for the Dakota and its driver.