On Friday September 3rd Brian Wood, a designer at Relic who worked on Company of Heroes, lost his life after a head-on collision with an SUV in Washington state. Wood is survived by his wife, Erin and his yet unborn child. According to The Province his final act was a heroic one. His wife states “. . . In his final act he did the only thing that would save us.” When he saw the out of control Chevy Blazer speeding towards him Brian braked and swerved his Subaru wagon so that the full force of the crash was absorbed on his side of the vehicle. Erin Wood goes on to say, “All the policeman say that if we had hit the car head-on all of us would be dead. At the very last second (Brian) braked really hard and turned right so that he would be put in the path of the SUV and not me and the baby, and that is the only thing that saved us both. “I am not going to waste the gift he gave us.”
The Chevy Blazer crossed the center 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 applied the breaks the momentum of the Blazer carried it over his vehicle which crushed the roof of the car killing him and injuring his wife. The Washington County Police found evidence of drug use at the scene and all of the occupants of the Blazer were well known to the 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.
Brian Wood created a game about a Company of Hero’s, and he was a hero even in his last minutes. My thoughts and prayers are go out to the surviving members of the Wood family.
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