Company of Heroes designer dies in heroic act

A bit downing for the forum, but some of us here are CoH players, so I thought I would post it up. One of the main designers behind the game, Brian Wood, has unfortunately passed away. However, the way it happened is both tragic and truly heroic.

From the main source:

Quote:

---

“. . . In his final act he did the only thing that would save us,” said Wood, 31.

With an out-of-control Chevy Blazer bearing down on him, the 33-year old North Vancouver man braked and swerved his Subaru wagon so that he would take the force of the head-on collision, saving his wife of five years, pregnant with their first baby..

“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.”

---

I have absolutely nothing but total respect and reverence for this man. What he did was a truly selfless act, and that he was able to save his wife and unborn child from this complete distaster is nothing short of miraculous. It turns out the other driver and their fellow passengers were all on drugs. Two of them died with Brian. The driver is looking at three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault. It's difficult to predict the sentence which will be given for this, but some brief research would put it in the 20 year range, but possibly as high as 50 and as low as 5.

People who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol are on my list of people that need to be sent away for life. It's needlessly stupid and hurts so many families each year. It's painful to keep reading this seemingly every week, and hopefully stricter sentences can be given out so this can be tackled once and for all.

A memorial trust has been set-up in Brian's name, and I urge you to donate to it when you can, as I will be when I can get hold of my card from home.

http://www.brianwoodmemorialtrust.com/

SOURCE: http://www.theprovince.com/news/fina...150/story.html

I read about this the day it happened, very sad and disgusting what happened. Didn't think it was the sort of thing to post on ATK so I didn't. Makes me angry that the driver will probably get a few years in jail and carry on with his life, while we've lost a very talented game designer, and his daughter will grow up without a father.

HOWEVER

I don't see why we should give them money... Seems greedy to me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Calneon

I read about this the day it happened, very sad and disgusting what happened. Didn't think it was the sort of thing to post on ATK so I didn't. Makes me angry that the driver will probably get a few years in jail and carry on with his life, while we've lost a very talented game designer, and his daughter will grow up without a father.

HOWEVER

I don't see why we should give them money... Seems greedy to me.

---

+1

How is it greedy to provide some financial support to a family in grief who may have just lost their only source of income to support themselves, especially in unforeseen and sudden circumstances. Seems charitable, even to me, the miser that makes Stooge look generous.

Is it bad that i read this a couple of days ago and i jsut lold xD

Lots of people die in car crashes and dont get any particular special treatment, and most of them will be alot worse off than their family.


I jsut lol'd coz shes all like "HE DIED TO SAVE US AND ILL TREASURE THE GIFT FOREVER", when more than likley it was like "oh shit were gunna crash" * swerve* FAIL.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Colonel Mitch

Is it bad that i read this a couple of days ago and i jsut lold xD

Lots of people die in car crashes and dont get any particular special treatment, and most of them will be alot worse off than their family.


I jsut lol'd coz shes all like "HE DIED TO SAVE US AND ILL TREASURE THE GIFT FOREVER", when more than likley it was like "oh shit were gunna crash" * swerve* FAIL.

---

+ 1

The shallowness and lack of empathy in this community never ceases to amaze me....

Yeah, he was a developer on a very good game, and he'll be missed in the gaming community, and his friends family and local community.

But glorifying someone's death as "A noble sacrfice to save his wife and kids" just doesn't sit well with me.

Maybe he was just turning into the other lane, on the other side of the road to try and avoid the oncoming car, which had swerved into his.

Yes, he was a good guy and he died.
No, I won't give it any extra thought or empathy than any other death today, tomorrow or any time in the future.

That is a bit shallow Mitch...

To be fair, most drivers would instinctively try to save themselves by swerving so the passenger side gets hit, simply human survival instinct. This guy has made the choice to save his family.

I do however agree that this happens a lot, and I don't see why I should give money to this family in-particular. I'm sure they will be fine, the guy was lead design in a big company so I'm sure they have quite a lot of money tucked away. It just seems to me that they've noticed that the story has a lot of interest and have set up a fund to try and get money. Kind of takes away from the emotional loss.

Right vicious if your just going to keep quoting and putting +1 then GTFO, its pretty sad and a selfless act but this happens all the time and the people that do it should be banned from driving for life and watch their car blown up by Jeremy Clarkson :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Target

Right vicious if your just going to keep quoting and putting +1 then GTFO, its pretty sad and a selfless act but this happens all the time and the people that do it should be banned from driving for life and watch their car blown up by Jeremy Clarkson :D

---

+1 :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Target

the people that do it should be banned from driving for life and watch their car blown up by Jeremy Clarkson :D

---

You seem to have mixed up some words....dont you mean "banned from life and everyone watches them get blow up by jeremy clarkson?"