Two days after an Amboy man died from injuries sustained in a car wreck, prosecutors filed charges of vehicular homicide and hit and run against the Vancouver driver accused of causing the Oct. 16 crash.
Jason B. Graham, 36, was arraigned Tuesday. Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis set bail at $100,000.
Harold Sloan Blanchard, 27, died Sunday evening at Southwest Washington Medical Center, more than a week after the crash on Northeast Cedar Creek Road near Pup Creek Road.
According to court documents, a Clark County sheriff’s deputy spotted the driver of a Cadillac tailgating another vehicle at about 8:15 p.m. The deputy said the driver then made a reckless pass at a high rate of speed.
“Passing another vehicle in this location is extremely dangerous, as the front vehicle could have turned south without signaling (because) this is the path of the state route,” the deputy wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
The deputy said both vehicles continued westbound and he lost sight of them. Moments later, the deputy was dispatched to a report of a single vehicle crash on Northeast Cedar Creek Road in which the Cadillac had struck a tree and a passenger was trapped.
The passenger, Blanchard, was rushed to the hospital. Deputies later found the driver, Graham, at the hospital and he was arrested for suspicion of vehicular assault, felony hit and run and outstanding warrants.
“Graham admitted … that he was driving the vehicle and also that he had failed to contact emergency personnel,” the deputy wrote. “His wife, Sarah, stated that Jason had told her nothing of Blanchard being in the vehicle after she had picked him up.”
Prosecutors allege Graham drove in a reckless manner and with disregard for the safety of others, according to charging papers.
His trial is set for Dec. 20.
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
