A Roy man has been charged with vehicular homicide for a crash March 7 on State Route 507 near Spanaway that left another man dead and some of the victim's family seriously injured. Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Lindquist on Monday charged Matthew James Haygood, 31, with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, failure to remain at an accident resulting in death, failure to remain at injury accident, and duty in case of damage to attended vehicle or other property. He pleaded not guilty in Superior Court and was jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. According to authorities, Haygood was drunk when the pickup truck he was driving collided head-on with a Tacoma family's vehicle near Spanaway, killing the father, Todd Morose, 50. "This is a particularly horrible example of why drunk driving is so dangerous,GÇ¥ Lindquist said. The results of toxicology test on Haygood are pending, authorities said. Prosecutors said the fatal crash was the second accident in a matter of minutes involving Haygood. They said he was driving his neighbor's oversized pickup truck when he rear-ended a vehicle in Spanaway and then sped away. Witnesses reported Haygood was swerving and crossing the centerline prior to the crash. Ten minutes later, Haygood was behind the wheel when the truck crossed the centerline of SR-507 near East Gate Road and struck a sports utility vehicle head-on, according to the State Patrol. Morose, who was driving the SUV, died at the scene. His wife, the front-seat passenger, suffered "substantial "abdominal and head injuries, including the loss of an eye, Lindquist said. The couple's 12-year-old daughter, who was trapped in the backseat behind her father after the collision, suffered a head laceration, a spinal fracture and two broken legs. A second daughter escaped serious injury. Haygood's truck was on fire and fully engulfed in flames when first-responders arrived on the scene. Haygood hid in some nearby woods for four hours until he returned to the scene and said he had been "wandering around the woods for hours calling for help,GÇ¥ Lindquist said. Haygood allegedly told officers that he borrowed the truck so he could pick up some wooden pallets and then went to a friend's house and drank before driving.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment