A judge's gavel rests on a book of law. (Dreamstime/TNS) (Dreamstime)
(Tribune News Service) — A Cascade Locks, Oregon, man who caused a fatal car crash near Clackamas while drinking and driving in 2024 has been sentenced to eight years in prison, Clackamas County officials said.
Chad Joseph Van Lom, 37, pleaded guilty in Clackamas County Circuit Court to second degree manslaughter, third degree assault and driving under the influence. He must pay $233,000 in restitution to the victim’s family and his license will be revoked for life.
Van Lom had been on a hike the day after Thanksgiving in 2024 and started drinking beer before heading home, the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.
Van Lom kept drinking while driving, the district attorney’s office said, and on a curvy stretch of South Clackamas River Drive hit Springfield couple David Collins and Susan Lawver, who had driven to Portland that day to buy a golf cart. Both cars fell down a steep embankment.
Van Lom was going about 68 miles per hour when the crash occurred, prosecutors said, and his blood alcohol level was about 0.22 — well above the 0.08 limit allowed by law.
Collins died at the scene. Lawver was taken to OHSU Hospital with multiple fractures and broken bones, the district attorney’s office said.
Collins served for 36 years in the U.S. Navy and retired in 2019 as a hospital administrator, the sheriff’s office said.
“Losing David was not just losing a husband, it was losing my partner, my safest place, and my best friend. Everything we built together was created with the belief that we would share the rest of our lives,” Lawver told Clackamas County Circuit Judge Katherine Weber, according to a statement provided by the district attorney’s office. “Now I live every day inside the emptiness left behind.”
Van Lom apologized to the family, the district attorney’s office said.
“My heart hurts,” Van Lom said in court, according to the statement. “The shame and guilt I feel will always be with me.”
Van Lom’s attorney said his client accepted responsibility.
“We don’t love the fact that he’s going to be incarcerated for many years,” Mark Cogan said. “But we do understand.”
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