Alcohol is suspected to have played a role in an injury crash caused by an off-duty Washington County Sheriff’s deputy Sunday morning in Afton, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was driving a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek SUV north on Minnesota 95 (St. Croix Trail) shortly after 10:30 a.m. when he crossed over the center line at Scenic Lane and collided head on with a 2022 Ford Expedition SUV, the State Patrol said in an incident report.

Blair and the occupants of the Ford — a 38-year-old Lake Elmo man and a 36-year-old Woodbury woman who was a passenger — were all transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with injuries not considered life-threatening.

Blair is suspected of having consumed alcohol before driving, according to the incident report. He had not been charged as of Wednesday.

Laura Perkins, spokeswoman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said Blair was off-duty at the time of the crash.

“The Minnesota State Patrol is currently investigating the incident, and we will take all appropriate actions in accordance with our policies and procedures pending the investigation’s outcome,” Perkins said.

In the mid-1980s, Blair was a star Junior A defenseman in the British Columbia Hockey League and later coached at the University of Maine and at University of Alaska-Anchorage, the sheriff’s office said in a 2022 Facebook post. Blair holds several BCHL records, including most goals by a defenseman in a season (38), and in 2022 the league renamed its annual award for the top blue-liner after him.

Blair has been a deputy with the sheriff’s office since 2020 and is assigned to the court security unit, the Facebook post says.

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