Seventeen days after being struck by a passing vehicle as he put gas in his Jeep, Curtis Moorhead of Perry is recovering slowly but painfully, according to his brother Brian.
“Curtis should be coming home within the next week,” Brian Moorhead of Perry said Tuesday. “Then the real work begins. He is going to need in-home supports, which we are working on.”
“‘Long road ahead’ is my new catch phrase,” said the victim’s brother. He said a Gofundme page has been started for his brother along with the account at Wells Fargo in Perry.
Brian Moorhead said his brother’s progress has been steady, with even the smallest improvements a cause for celebration.
“Curtis and I had our first coherent conversation today,” he a few days ago. “I fed him breakfast and left hospital feeling the best I have all week.”
The investigation of the incident by law enforcement is also proceeding. According to a report issued last Tuesday by the Iowa State Patrol, Misti M. Mast, 25, of Yale, the driver of the vehicle that struck Moorhead, was “under the influence of alcohol” at the time of the accident.
“I can’t confirm that it’s over the legal limit,” said Karla Woolridge of the Iowa State Patrol District 4 office in Denison. “It’s just one of the conditions. We are still waiting for some more detailed testing on that.”
Woolridge said laboratory results are typically received in four to six weeks. A full report will then be presented to the Guthrie County Attorney, she said.
“We’ll put together the complete information,” Woolridge said. “All that information will be given to the county attorney, and we will work work with the county attorney as far as possible charges down the road when we get everything together. That’s how these cases generally work.”
According to Iowa State Patrol Trooper Kevin Leffler’s report of the incident, Mast’s Dodge Journey was eastbound on County Road F25 behind a Ford Ranger at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, May 7.
“The Ford Ranger saw that Unit 2” — Moorhead’s vehicle — “was partially on the travelled portion and moved over to the westbound lane,” according to Leffler’s report.
Mast “failed to see Unit 2 and the driver,” the report said, and her vehicle “struck the driver and the open driver’s door of Unit 2.” The report said the Ford Ranger “turned around and came back to the scene.”
Moorhead’s vehicle “was blacked out with no lighting to the rear,” the report said.
Moorhead was transported from the scene by air ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he remains recovering.
The Iowa State Patrol, Guthrie County Sheriff’s office, Guthrie County EMS and Panora Police Department responded to the scene.
According to Leffler’s report, Mast was traveling with three occupants, Ayden Mundt, 6, Lukas Mundt, 4, and Hadleigh Mundt, under 1 year old. Moorhead’s vehicle had four other occupants, Danielle Dalton, 33, Harlee Moorhead, 16, Kira Moorhead, 8, and Maci Moorhead, 3.
Brian Moorhead’s picture from the crash site showed how lucky his brother was to be alive, and the story of Curtis Moorhead’s brush with death received another strange chapter when a Dawson man drove his pickup truck through the accident investigation scene in the early hours of May 8.
Jeremy Garrity, 42, of Dawson was arrested by the Guthrie County Sheriff’s office on a charge of third-offense OWI after driving past roadblocks on 160th Road west of Wink Avenue and into the midst of the scene where the Guthrie County Sheriff’s office, Iowa State Patrol and Panora Police Department were investigating the Moorhead accident.
According to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s office, “While investigating the accident, officers had to move out of the way from being struck by a pickup that ran through the accident scene.”
Garrity’s vehicle was then stopped in the 3200 block of 160th Road.
“We had the road shut down,” said Guthrie County Chief Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Bennett, “and he drove around our squad cars, through the accident scene and ran over some equipment. We stopped him, and he was intoxicated.”
Garrity was also charged with failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. He was transported to the Guthrie County Jail.
ThePerryNews.com will update this story as information becomes available.
