Defendant in fatal crash trial denies driving recklessly

A Battle Ground man took the stand in Clark County Superior Court on Wednesday to tell his account of a fatal traffic collision that killed his 17-year-old girlfriend, Samantha Ellington, in 2012.

Ryan Matison, 22, is charged with vehicular homicide and reckless driving in connection with her death on Black Friday of that year.

Matison denied accusations by Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu that Matison was recklessly driving his 1994 Toyota Corolla at the time of the crash by speeding excessively and failing to stop at a stop sign on southbound Northeast 29th Avenue at the intersection of Highway 502.

The Corolla collided with an eastbound 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The impact killed Effingham, who was in the Corolla’s passenger seat.

Matison said he was devastated when he learned that Effingham hadn’t survived.

“It was just kind of like a nightmare that you can’t wake up from,” he said.

Washington State Patrol Detective Jennifer Ortiz said Matison was driving 59 to 64 mph in a 40-mph zone on southbound Northeast 29th Avenue when his Corolla entered the intersection. Ortiz is an accident reconstructionist.

Matison testified Wednesday that he was driving 40 to 45 mph just before the collision.

He 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.

“I got really panicked and scared because I felt like my brakes were not going to work,” 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.

“It was in good condition,” Jacox said. “It was a fully functional brake system.”

However, defense expert Tom Fries, an accident reconstructionist, refuted Jacox’s opinion.

“That opinion was wrong,” Fries said. “If you have seepage at one of the brake cylinders, that means you have leakage.”

“You will get the perception of the pedal going to the floor,” he said. “That’s not what’s happening, but that’s your perception.”

Matison’s defense attorney, Chris Sundstrom, has said the collision was an accident caused by brake failure in Matison’s Corolla.

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 eastbound on Highway 502. When Matison failed to stop, Vu alleged previously, 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. 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. Effingham’s dad, Jeff Effingham, said that his daughter and Matison, then 20, had been dating off and on for a short period of time when the crash occurred.

Matison said in a recorded interview with detectives that the time leading up to the crash had been “the most perfect day I had had with her.”

“It was almost like it was too perfect, you know,” he said.

Matison’s trial continues today in Judge Suzan Clark’s courtroom.