A Clark County jury is deliberating today in the trial of a Battle Ground man accused of vehicular homicide in the 2012 death of his 17-year-old girlfriend in a traffic collision near that city.
Ryan Matison, 22, is charged with vehicular homicide and reckless driving in connection with the crash on Black Friday of that year.
In closing arguments Thursday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu alleged that Matison was recklessly driving his 1994 Toyota Corolla by speeding excessively and failing to stop at a stop sign on southbound Northeast 29th Avenue at the intersection of state Highway 502. His car collided with an eastbound 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The impact killed Matison’s girlfriend, Samantha Effingham, 17, of Woodland, who was in the Corolla’s passenger seat.
The jury must decide whether Matison drove with “willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.”
Washington State Patrol Detective Jennifer Ortiz said Matison was driving 59 to 64 mph in a 40-mph zone on Northeast 29th Avenue when his Corolla entered the intersection.
A couple who were driving on the road at the same time testified that Matison passed them at a high rate of speed just before the crash, and they were fearful that his vehicle would strike theirs.
“He was driving down that road like a bat out of hell probably not paying attention,” Vu said Thursday. “He passed the (couple) and didn’t have time to stop at that stop sign and blew through it. … As a result, we lost a beautiful life.”
Matison claimed he was driving only 40 to 45 mph just before the collision. Defense expert Tom Fries, a mechanical engineer and accident reconstructionist, testified that his calculations also placed Matison’s speed in that lower range. He criticized many of the methods Ortiz used to estimate Matison’s speed.
Matison said he pressed his brakes to the floor to try to stop at the stop sign, but the brakes felt as if they weren’t working.
His attorney, Chris Sundstrom, argued Thursday that the crash was an accident.
“This doesn’t even come close to reckless driving,” Sundstrom said.
“The state can’t handle the truth, and that is that Mr. Matison is innocent,” he said.
Investigators hired Dwayne Jacox of Clark County Shops to inspect Matison’s brakes after the crash.
Jacox testified Wednesday that Matison’s brakes were in working order, despite some minor seepage in the left rear wheel cylinder.
However, Fries refuted Jacox’s opinion. He said leakage in the rear wheel cylinder could cause malfunction — specifically the perception that the brake is going to the floor but not working.
The crash happened at about 2:30 p.m. Nov. 23, 2012, when Matison was driving Effingham to her job at a Dairy Queen in Woodland. As Matison was traveling south on Northeast 29th Avenue, Luke Merriman of Battle Ground was driving east on Highway 502. When Matison failed to stop, Merriman’s pickup broadsided the passenger side of Matison’s Corolla, killing Effingham.
Effingham died from multiple blunt force trauma, according to Clark County Medical Examiner Dennis Wickham.
Several of Effingham’s family members, including her parents, have been attending the trial since it began Monday. Effingham’s father, Jeff Effingham, said that his daughter, a senior at Woodland High School, and Matison, then 20, had been dating off and on for a short period of time when the crash occurred.
