A Battle Ground man and a good Samaritan who stopped to help him were seriously injured Sunday morning in related vehicle crashes on Interstate 205 in Vancouver. The incidents closed northbound lanes of the freeway for several hours and sent police searching for a driver who fled the scene.
Minutes before 6 a.m., 911 dispatchers received multiple calls of a pickup driving erratically on eastbound state Highway 14, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn. Before troopers could find the truck, it traveled north onto I-205, rear-ended a blue Honda CRV on the freeway and took off, according to the State Patrol.
The northbound CRV, which was in the right lane near Burton Road, careened into a concrete barrier on the left side of the freeway and came to rest in northbound lanes.
That’s when another driver, 63-year-old Richard G. Irvine of Camas, pulled over to the right shoulder, got out of his vehicle and crossed freeway lanes to help. 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 State Patrol.
Irvine and the CRV’s driver, Steven M. Klase, 25, of Battle Ground, suffered serious injuries and were hospitalized, according to state patrol. Klase was in satisfactory condition Sunday evening at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, according to hospital staff. Irvine’s condition was not available.
Delacruz-Moreno also was injured, and his condition was not available.
Arrest made
On Sunday evening, police 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, whom they arrested on unrelated outstanding charges, Finn said.
The name of the truck’s owner was not released, and Finn said troopers were still investigating who was driving the pickup at the time of the crash. State patrol impounded all three vehicles involved in the collision and said charges in the case were pending.
While police investigated the incident Sunday morning, all northbound lanes of I-205 were closed between state Highway 14 and Highway 500, and traffic was rerouted to Highway 14 and Interstate 5.
I-205 reopened at about 11:30 a.m., according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Those with information about the crash can call the state patrol at 360-449-7999.
