The pedestrian who was struck and killed by a vehicle Wednesday evening in Hazel Dell was identified Thursday as James Grubbs, a Vancouver man who has helped hundreds through their recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, his friends said.
Grubbs, 45, was attempting to cross the six lanes of Northeast Highway 99 south of 78th Street shortly after 5 p.m. to meet a friend at the nearby Starbucks, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Grubbs ran across three lanes of traffic and was in the fourth lane when he was hit by a 2007 Ford Mustang Coupe, according to the sheriff’s office. Arriving firefighters found Grubbs on the roadway in critical condition and quickly put him into an ambulance, but he died shortly after arriving at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.
The driver of the Mustang, Marion Hubbard Thomas Jr., 47, of Vancouver, stayed on scene and cooperated with investigators. No criminal charges are being considered in the case, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators said there is no indication that either Grubbs or Thomas was impaired or that Thomas was distracted.
The crash happened near XChange Recovery Center, 7735 N.E. Highway 99, where Grubbs ran a recovery meeting on Sunday and Wednesday nights called R360very. He had been setting up for the 7 p.m. meeting Wednesday prior to the fatal incident.
Vicky Smith, who is a pastor at the Faith Center’s XChange Recovery Service, described Grubbs as someone who put all of his free time into helping others recover from their addictions.
“He had such energy and he was such a firestarter for recovery,” Smith said. “He was kind of like the pied piper of recovery; people would follow him.”
Not only did Grubbs start the biweekly meetings for R360very with his girlfriend, Tasha Lewis, he also started Getsome Recovery, an organization that raised money to help people afford housing and send people to treatment.
Grubbs spoke at meetings and treatment facilities for a number of organizations, making him well-known and respected in the recovery community.
Grubbs was a month shy of celebrating five years of sobriety from drugs and alcohol, Smith said.
“He was really all about giving back, reaching his hand back to pull others out of that lifestyle,” she said.
Lewis said Grubbs inspired people by telling his own recovery story, which included finding faith in God.
“Everything came from his heart,” she said.
Grubbs worked as a product tester for Church & Dwight, a household products manufacturer. He is survived by a teenage daughter, Lewis said.
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