Crash kills father and daughter, injures mother in Whatcom County

WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — Richard Balogh stood behind the counter of his Rifugio's Country Italian Restaurant on Mount Baker Highway near Deming.

He was serving Mother's Day Brunch at about 10:30 when he and his customers heard it.

"And that was the most frightening sound that one hears," he said.

The frightening sound was a crash about 150 feet from Balogh's restaurant.

He and many of his customers rushed out to help.

"What did you see when you were out there?" he was asked.

"Mayhem," he said.

The Washington State Patrol says 71-year-old Larry Fitzgerald of Maple Falls was driving his SUV eastbound on Mount Baker Highway.

He inexplicably crossed the center line and sideswiped a car driven by 24-year-old Pamela Moyer of Bellingham.

The SUV kept going and struck the vehicle behind her, head on.

Inside were her 25-year-old husband, Phillip, and their 5-month old daughter, Penelope.

"A lady witness to the accident was in the back seat trying to get the child out of the infant car seat," said Frank Pitch, a local teacher. "And we knew something was wrong there pretty quickly, too."

Pitch was in the restaurant with his extended family.

He ran out to help, too, until medics arrived.

"We already knew at that point that we'd lost two people," Pitch said. "That the father was gone and that the infant was gone.

And that was determined pretty quickly."

A friend of the SUV driver said Fitzgerald is Vietnam veteran with a big heart.

"But how would he feel knowing this?" Lance Cooper was asked.

"I think it's going to definitely devastate him mentally for sure," Cooper said.

This accident has devastated many people.

Fitzgerald left here in critical condition.

Pamela Moyer was walking around at the scene, according to the good Samaritans.

But she was in shock.

She is expected to survive.

Cox Media Group