Luke Merriman was returning home from a hunting trip when his 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup struck Ryan Matison’s 1994 Toyota Corolla in the intersection of state Highway 502 and Northeast 29th Avenue.
The impact killed Matison’s 17-year-old girlfriend, Samantha Effingham, of Woodland who was in the passenger seat of the Toyota. The incident led to charges of vehicular homicide and reckless driving against Matison, 22, of Battle Ground.
In the second day of Matison’s trial in Clark County Superior Court, Merriman testified that he didn’t even have time to brake before the crash.
“In my mind, the Toyota did not stop at the stop sign,” Merriman said. “It collided with my vehicle.”
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu alleges that Matison was driving 63 to 64 mph in a 40-mph zone on southbound Northeast 29th Avenue when he failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of state Highway 502. Vu alleges Matison’s reckless driving caused Effingham’s untimely death.
Matison’s defense attorney, Chris Sundstrom, said the collision was an accident, which was caused by brake failure in Matison’s Corolla. He said he plans to call an expert to testify to this claim later this week.
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 southbound on Northeast 29th Avenue, Merriman was driving eastbound on Highway 502. Merriman was driving between 53 and 54 mph in a 50-mph zone just before the crash, said Clark County sheriff’s Detective James Payne.
Merriman’s pickup slowed from 54 mph to 9 mph as it struck the Toyota, said Payne, who conducted a Bosch Crash Data Retrieval analysis on the pickup’s computer memory. He said the sudden change in speed shows that Merriman didn’t press on the brake pedal.
Payne was unable to conduct a similar analysis on the Toyota due to its year, make and model.
Merriman initially told investigators that he had slammed on the brakes prior to impact.
“Today, I believe when the collision happened, I locked up my brakes,” Merriman testified Tuesday.
The front of his pickup broadsided the passenger side of Matison’s Toyota, killing Effingham.
Matison left his vehicle and approached Merriman’s pickup, Merriman said.
“The driver of the vehicle told me he was sorry and said his brakes did not work,” Merriman said. “He was scared. His face was bloody.”
Effingham died from multiple blunt force trauma, according to Clark County Medical Examiner Dennis Wickham. She had multiple bone fractures in her skull, ribs, legs, pelvis and vertebra and lacerations to multiple parts of her body, including her aorta, the body’s largest artery, Wickham testified Monday.
Several of Effingham’s family members, including her parents, have been attending the trial since it began Monday. Matison also appeared to have family members at the trial, but they declined to identify themselves to The Columbian.
Effingham’s dad, Jeff Effingham, said that his daughter and Matison, then 20, had been dating off and on for a couple of months when the crash occurred. Effingham was a senior at Woodland High School but attended classes at Clark College as part of the Running Start program.
“She was a very smart young lady,” he said of his daughter. “She was one of those people who knew what she wanted and knew how to get it. She and her sister used to compete for A’s.”
She is survived by a twin brother and an older sister and brother, Jeff Effingham said.
Matison’s trial continues today in Judge Suzan Clark’s courtroom.
