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OREGON CITY, Or. -- A Cascade Locks man who caused a fatal car crash the day after Thanksgiving in 2024 was sentenced Monday to 96 months in prison.
Chad Joseph Van Lom, 37, pled guilty last month in Clackamas County Circuit Court to Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Assault in the Third Degree and DUII.
Circuit Judge Katherine Weber ordered Van Lom to pay more than $233,000 in restitution and imposed a lifetime suspension of his driver’s license.
The crash occurred on Nov. 29, 2024, on South Clackamas River Drive.
Van Lom reportedly had gone hiking alone that day and began drinking beer while stopped on his way home and continued to drink while driving.
David Collins and his wife, Susan Lawver, drove to Portland from their home in Springfield, Ore., that day to purchase a new golf cart. After making their purchase, the couple decided to dine in Happy Valley before heading home.
Around 3:32 p.m., Van Lom entered a curvy stretch of Clackamas River Drive, crossed the center line and crashed head on with the vehicle driven by Collins. Both vehicles tumbled down a steep embankment near the Clackamas River. An investigation estimated Van Lom’s speed at 68 miles per hour when the collision occurred. His blood alcohol content was 0.22 percent. The legal limit in Oregon is 0.08 percent.
Collins died at the scene. Lawver was taken by ambulance to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital where she was treated for neck and back fractures, a broken collarbone and multiple broken bones in her feet, arms, hands and legs.
“Losing David was not just losing a husband, it was losing my partner, my safest place, and my best friend. Everything we built together was created with the belief that we would share the rest of our lives. Now I live every day inside the emptiness left behind,” Lawver told the judge.
“The people I love now see a version of me shaped by trauma and loss—a version I never chose and never wanted to be. Our family has been split open by this tragedy, and nothing feels whole anymore,” Lawver said.
Collins, a retired U.S. Navy Captain who served for 36 years, retired in 2019 from his duties as a hospital administrator. Family members said Collins entered the Navy at 17 as an enlisted man and rose through the ranks, inspiring and mentoring younger officers.
“The world was a better place with my brother in it,” said his sister, Diana Collins, a prosecutor with the Washtenaw County (Mich.) District Attorney’s Office.
Van Lom tearfully apologized to the Collins’ family, acknowledging the deep pain he caused.
“My heart hurts,” Van Lom said. “The shame and guilt I feel will always be with me.”
When Van Lom leaves prison, Diana Collins urged him to follow the lead of her brother and devote time to helping others.
“You’re going to have to do better,” Diana Collins told Van Lom. “You’re going to have to be a better person.”
The District Attorney’s Office thanks the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and Deputies Cody Ringheim, Matt Brown and Bryon O’Neil for their work on this case.
Deputy District Attorneys Tiffany Escover and Ryan Chiotti prosecuted the case.
Clackamas County Circuit Court case 24CR63740
Captain David Collins and his daughter, Brenna Collins (photo courtesy of Brenna Collins).
