Rich Irvine is the kind of man who would stop to help after seeing a crash, his friends and family said. The 63-year-old from Camas did just that early Sunday morning and ended up critically injured in the intensive care unit of PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.
“My dad is amazing. He’s always working so hard to help everybody,” said his daughter, Carrie Curtin, 26. “He would stop and help the strangest stranger.” Curtin, who’s five months pregnant with a baby boy, said her dad was looking forward to being a grandfather.
Just before 6 a.m. Sunday, Irvine saw a pickup rear-end a blue Honda CRV on Interstate 205 and drive away. He pulled his car to the right shoulder and crossed freeway lanes to help the driver in the CRV, which had careened into a concrete barrier on the left side of the freeway and came to rest in the northbound lanes. But as he approached the CRV, a Honda Odyssey minivan driven by 41-year-old Seattle resident Fredy Delacruz-Moreno struck the CRV and Irvine, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Irvine and the CRV’s driver, Steven M. Klase, 25, of Battle Ground, were hospitalized. Klase was in satisfactory condition Monday at PeaceHealth, according to hospital staff. Irvine was listed in critical condition.
“It’s the brain that’s going to be the biggest problem, I think,” said his wife, Debby Irvine, during a press conference at the hospital. “It’ll be a super long road — best case scenario.”
Her husband has some bleeding in the brain, a spinal fracture and a fractured vertebrae, along with a less serious pelvis injury. He’s on a ventilator and can’t breathe on his own, she said.
At first, he wasn’t responsive, leading Debby Irvine to believe she might have to take him off life support Monday. But, he started to reach out by grasping her hand and giving what might have been a thumbs-up.
“I was encouraged to see that he’s responding more than I thought he would,” said Debby Irvine, who’s a nurse.
She said he was on his way to pick up his daughter Nancy Irvine prior to the crash. The 27-year-old called her mom to say that Dad hadn’t shown up yet, and called again 45 minutes later when he still hadn’t shown up.
“I knew then this was totally not like him,” Debby Irvine said.
At first, she thought that her husband might have had a heart attack. About a year ago, Richard Irvine underwent coronary heart surgery.
She drove on Interstate 205 and saw his car parked by a bad-looking crash. No one would tell her whether her husband was injured, but she eventually reunited with him at the hospital.
He’s told her many times before to never get out of the car when there’s an accident on a busy highway. They stopped one time to help at a crash site in front of a nursery in San Jose, Calif., but that wasn’t on a highway.
She described her husband as a driven guy with lots of energy, who’s focused on helping his community. As a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Clark County, Richard Irvine feeds the homeless and constructs beds for shelters and wheelchair ramps.
“He’s the sort of person who sees something that needs to be done and he does it,” said his brother-in-law Larry Robinson, 63, who flew in from San Francisco to see the Irvines.
On Sunday evening, police reported that they found the pickup that fled the crash, a white 2006 Ford F-150. It had been abandoned in Vancouver, and police traced it back to its registered owner, said Trooper Will Finn. Joshua Cane Frahm, 28, of Vancouver was arrested on an unrelated, outstanding district court warrant, according to Sgt. Fred Neiman.
Charges in the case are still pending.
Though Delacruz-Moreno struck a vehicle in an apparent second collision, Finn said that the entire series of event is being investigated as one event.
Finn said troopers are still investigating who was driving the pickup at the time of the crash. He said that investigators have a person of interest in the case but are not releasing more information until the case is wrapped up.
“Before we make an arrest, we want to make sure we have the right person and that we have evidence to support (the charges),” Finn said.
“I don’t have anger right now. I want my husband back,” Debby Irvine said. “I know accidents are accidents.”
While police investigated the incident Sunday morning, all northbound lanes of I-205 were closed between state Highway 14 and Highway 500 for about 5 1/2 hours. All three cars were impounded.
Anyone with information about the crashes is asked to call the State Patrol at 360-449-7999.
