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By Katherine Ullmer, Staff Writer Updated 11:05 PM Thursday, July 16, 2009

WASHINGTON TWP., Montgomery County — Rhonda Cassidy said she watched in horror as her husband, Charles, was struck by an SUV and pushed into another as the couple tried to get across Ohio 725 on Wednesday, July 15.

“The whole thing was surreal,” she said. “I’m mortified. It was like watching the towers get hit in 9/11.”

Charles Cassidy, of 1251 Harker St., Dayton, died at 5:17 a.m. Thursday at Miami Valley Hospital, according to Jim Fannin, Montgomery County Cornoner’s investigator.

Cassidy was a respiratory therapist, who spent 17 years at Grandview Hospital and then worked for Ohio Respiratory Staffers, “until they went under about a year and a half ago,” his wife said. He’d been on unemployment since then, she said, adding. “We have no insurance.”

They had been at her father’s Washington Twp. apartment, because he’s a paraplegic who needs care 24/7. She was about 10 feet behind her husband because she had pushed the cross walk button.

“We were on our way to catch a bus to go to a friend’s house” when the accident happened, she said. They had the walk signal but the light changed to green too quickly, she said. When they got to the middle of the road, it had already switched and “a car just came too fast and hit him. It was a white SUV and another vehicle van,” she said.

The second vehicle, driven by a woman driver, stopped, while the first vehicle drove off, she said.

Cassidy said her husband is an organ donor through Life Connection of Ohio. His organs were harvested to help others Thursday, she said.

“It was very important to him because he was a respiratory therapist,” she said. “He was a good man who helped and saved a lot of lives over the years. He wanted his organs to go to anyone who needed them.”

The police were still investigating the accident and questioning witnesses Thursday.

“There are still conflicting reports on whether it was a hit and run,” said Capt. Dee Osterfeld, police director of the Washington Twp. Montgomery County Sheriff’s substation Thursday afternoon.

Osterfeld said there were numerous witnesses to the accident, some of whom are still being interviewed by Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Ball, who can be reached at 433-0152, for anyone with information on the accident.

No one has been cited in the incident, which is still under investigation, Osterfeld said.

She said she did not have any information to release on the driver(s) of the vehicle(s) at this point in time.

Cassidy said she and her husband have three grown children and two grandchildren. Tiffany Reed and her brother Timothy Cassidy live in Dayton, while their son Thomas lives in Denver, Colo., she said. Reed’s two children are Devin and Carter.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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