Truck crashes after driver dies at wheel

An 85-year-old man died while driving Tuesday and struck an oncoming vehicle in north Spokane.

The Spokane man was in a 2002 Chevrolet pickup that was traveling south on Division at only a few miles an hour, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

Witnesses said the driver was alone and slumped over the steering wheel, Cottam said. Another man tried to run and stop the pickup, but the truck got away and moved into the northbound lane where it hit an oncoming vehicle near Garland and Division.

Medics pronounced the man dead at the scene. Nobody else was injured. An autopsy will determine the cause of death.

Infant dies from injuries suffered in crash

A third family member has died from injuries suffered last month in a head-on collision along Interstate 90 near Post Falls.

Ebin Lewis, 9 months, died Tuesday afternoon at Sacred Heart Medical Center. He was one of six people on their way to Silverwood Theme & RV Park on July 23 when their van was struck by a vehicle that crossed the median.

Ebin’s mother, Tonia Lewis, and his aunt, Henrietta Lewis, both of Spokane Valley, were killed in the crash. The others in the van were treated at area hospitals.

Prosecutors believe the driver of the vehicle that crossed the median, Kevin T. Culp, lost control of the SUV he was driving because he had a seizure.

Culp, who did not have a license, told investigators that he had gone two or three days without taking medication he needs to control seizures. He faces two counts of vehicular manslaughter and remained at the Kootenai County Jail Tuesday on $250,000 bail.

In 2004, Culp was charged with first-degree manslaughter after he shot a man to death while fiddling with a loaded gun in Spokane County. A jury deadlocked on that charge earlier this year. He’s scheduled to be retried in the fall.

High-risk sex offender moves into area

A sex offender considered to be a high risk to commit more sex crimes has moved to Spokane, Spokane police reported.

Harold Edward Martin, 30, has 10 convictions on his record, including rape, incest and burglary, said police spokesman Dick Cottam in a news release. Martin recently registered as a sex offender in Spokane as a transient with no permanent address.

His most recent conviction was in Lewis County, Idaho, for custodial assault with sexual motivation.

Martin, a level 3 sex offender, is not wanted by police but the community is being alerted to his presence as part of a precautionary disclosure allowed by state law. He is 5-foot-6 and 180 pounds with a two-inch scar on his right wrist.

South Spokane fire burns building, brush

One or two buildings were destroyed Tuesday evening in a south Spokane blaze that sent smoke in the air high enough to see from downtown.

Spokane County Fire District 8 made the first response to the fire, which was about a quarter mile west of Regal Street on Palouse Highway, because there was initial confusion about the location, said Spokane Fire Battalion Chief Steve Sabo.

The Spokane Fire Department was dispatched once it was determined that the blaze was on land recently annexed into the city.

Sabo said the it was unclear if more than one building had burned, what they were used for and who owned them. He said they likely were vacant.

The fire also burned about four acres of brush. No injuries were reported.

Cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Woman sues over wrongfully removed brain

Tacoma

A North Carolina woman is suing the King County medical examiner’s office and a Maryland research institute, saying her brother’s brain was removed for research without her consent.

Robinette Amaker, of Fayetteville, N.C., is seeking $500,000 in the lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday.

The lawsuit is the first legal action in Washington state concerning a brain-collection program at the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. Lawsuits have also been filed in Maine alleging that brains were taken there without full consent.