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Elderly Chehalis man struck in crosswalk dies

2012.1206.george.benton [1]

George Benton, pictured with his wife Gerry, kept lots of copies of the local Senior Dynamics magazine after he was featured in it 10 years ago. Former co-worker Barbara Lovelady said he hadn’t aged since this photo was taken.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 94-year-old man hit by a car as he crossed a Chehalis street in his power wheelchair on Monday evening died yesterday after returning home from the hospital.

Chehalis police have reopened the accident investigation.

George Benton, a retired Chehalis firefighter, lived in an adult family home about a block from where he was struck. It happened about 5 p.m. Monday in a crosswalk on the 1100 block of South Market Boulevard, in front of Safeway.

Benton still owned his own house above the southeast corner of the grocery store parking lot.

“Almost every day he’d get on his scooter and drive up the hill to work in his yard or putter in his shop,” said Leah Jensen, operator of Leah’s Adult Family Home.

Chehalis police on Tuesday described the accident as one that resulted in minor injuries. Sgt. Brian Hickey said Benton was in a crosswalk but it was dark and the driver didn’t see him.

Chehalis Deputy Police Chief Randy Kaut said today the driver was a 53-year-old Onalaska woman behind the wheel of a 1990s Buick passenger car.

It wasn’t clear today if a decision had been made to not ticket the driver, or if the collision investigation just wasn’t quite finished, according to Kaut. There were a lot of witnesses to interview, Kaut said.

Police don’t yet know the reason for the death, he said.

“We’ve reopened the accident and we’re going to take a look at what direction to go,” Kaut said.

Barbara Lovelady, administrative assistant at the Chehalis Fire Department, said Benton was a very good friend who she visited often. He was a captain when he retired in 1984, after almost 32 years with the department, she said.

“He was pretty special, he always had lots of stories,” she said.

Benton lost his wife a few years ago and had no children, she said. Lovelady described him as a talented carpenter who was still very active and appreciated a bargain.

“He was very well known at Safeway, and the Visiting Nurses Thrift Shop,” she said. “He was a ‘frequent flier’ there.”

He traveled by scooter, by bus and it wasn’t too many years ago he was still riding his bicycle down to the fire department to “talk the ears off” firefighters.

“Yeah, he was having trouble remembering, but it didn’t slow him down any,” Lovelady said.

He built platforms in his apple trees so he could sit up there and prune them. This past spring, Chehalis police were called [2] more than once to his yard by worried neighbors.

Jensen said Benton came to live in her home on 12th Street about three and half years ago, after a stroke left him with short-term memory loss.

He spoke of the value of growing up poor, the importance of fitness, and at 94, could easily pass for 75, she said.

The accident left him with a broken ankle and a cut to his ear, according to the women.

Benton was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital and then later that night to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to get his ear repaired, according to Jensen. One of her staff brought him home Tuesday evening, she said.

He just wasn’t feeling very well, she said.

“He was sitting at the table yesterday, I made him breakfast but he wasn’t hungry,” she said. “He told me, I feel like all my friends are gathering around me.”

Benton was having shortness of breath, so she called his doctor, and then when it got worse, she called 911.

“They got him on the gurney, but before they left, he passed,” she said.

The EMT told her it was most likely a blood clot, she said.

Benton is survived by three first cousins, two of them in Tacoma, according to Jensen.