Three people die after driver hits couple’s car, tow truck driver
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KELSO, Washington (KPTV) — Three people died and two others are hurt after a crash on I-5 Saturday morning north of Kelso.
According to police and family members, a Battle Ground couple was on the side of the highway picking up their son as his car was being towed.
That’s when police say a woman ran into them.
“It’s hard, very hard, very sudden, no one expected this,” Sparkle Chisum and Jadene Johnson said, as they try to process what happened to their father Arthur Anderson Saturday morning.
Just north of Kelso on I-5, Washington State Patrol say a car spun out and called for a ride as well as a tow.
Ashley Stoker tells us that was her brother Travis and that her parents Rick and Karen came to get him.
Ashley says the three of them were in the car together as the tow truck driver was loading up Travis’s car.
According to police, that’s when 43-year-old Anna-Christie Ireland ran into Rick and Karen’s car, killing them as well as the tow truck driver who’s now been identified as Arthur Anderson.
His daughters say he loved his grandkids and playing poker, that he’d been a tow truck driver for more than 30 years and had his own company.
“The job is dangerous but you just don’t think its gonna happen to him and it did,” Johnson said.
WSP say drugs or alcohol were involved and Ireland now faces three counts of vehicular homicide. She was taken to the hospital.
“It was very unfortunate what happened to our dad but knowing the driver was under the influence makes it that much worse,” Johnson said. “I know that her family’s hurting too, we’re all victims in this, its just very unfortunate.”
According to Ashley, Travis is also in the hospital. She shared with us a Go Fund Me page for her family which says he has a few fractured ribs and his right arm and left leg are in casts.
She writes on the site that this is “The worst nightmare and doesn’t seem real.” She says her parents met in 6th grade and calls them kind, selfless, loving, good hearted people.
Ashley also sent FOX 12 a statement saying in part “We are very grateful for the love and support from our friends, family and community in this senseless act. I am so sorry for Art’s family as well as I have heard he was a loving family man.”
Chisum and Johnson said they’re sending condolences to her family as well, as they mourn their own loss.
“He was the best dad in the world, he was a really good man, and I’m not just saying that, he was a really really good man and we’re gonna miss him,” they said.
The GoFundMe for the Stoker family is here: gofundme.com/f/the-stoker-family?utm_campaign=p_cp_url&utm_medium=os&utm_source=customer
And this is the GoFundMe for Arthur Anderson: gofundme.com/f/affordable-towing-family-art-anderson?utm_campaign&utm_medium=os&utm_source=customer
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