Game designer Brian Wood dies protecting his pregnant wife

On September 6, 2010 game designer Brian Wood was driving with his pregnant wife, Erin Wood, to their home on Whidbey Island in Washington State when faced with an out of control Chevy Blazer heading right at them he swerved his Subaru wagon so he would take the brunt of the impact.

The impact resulted in his death but saved the life of his wife and their unborn child. The Province reported on their site that the people in the Chevy Blazer are well known to the police and that drugs were found in the Blazer

A Chevy Blazer, with four occupants, crossed the centre line when the driver tried to take her sweater off while driving, asking the other front passenger to take the wheel at the time.

When Wood braked and swerved slightly, the Blazer continued forward, its momentum driving it over top of the Subaru, the wheels crushing the roof of the smaller car killing Wood and causing his wife to suffer a non-life-threatening head injury as well.

It then launched into the air before crashing to the ground. When it was returned to its wheels, the entire upper portion of the SUV was flat – in line with the hood.

Washington State Patrol found evidence of drug use at the accident scene in the SUV. All of the occupants are well know to police.

“There is quite a drug history there . . . and we found some evidence of that at the scene so that leads us to believe there were drugs in their systems,” said Sgt, Jason Longoria.

The two male passengers in the rear of the vehicle, 25-year-old Jacob Quistorf and 26-year-old Francis Malloy, were also killed in the accident. The driver, Jordyn Weichert, 21, is now in custody awaiting formal charges of three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault, likely to be laid by Thursday.

Brian Wood was a lead designer for Relic Entertainment and most recently worked on Company of Heroes.