A man killed in a crash on I-275 is remembered by his family as a loving brother and father.
Todd Rutledge died in the three-car crash.
It happened around midnight on Saturday, shutting part of the highway down for hours. He was headed home to pick up his kids.
The 46-year-old Rutledge was the dad of a six-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy.
He left the house around 7 p.m. and was coming back from a motorcycle club event in Indiana.
Rutledge’s sister said his goal was to support his biker community and pick up his kids so he could take them trick-or-treating the next morning. She added he wasn’t on his motorcycle at the time, but rather a passenger in his friend’s car.
“She said a car stopped in front of her, just stopped in the middle of the highway, and she hit it and tried to jump over, and a car hit her and knocked her back over, and it was a whirlwind and fatality. My brother was gone,” said Robin Owens McClair, one of Rutledge’s sisters.
“The name of the game is get home safe.” That was the last thing McClair’s brother said to her. Owens McClair said it’s a phrase they say within the motorcycle community.
“Safety is the name of the game. Get home, safe. He didn’t make it home. Not to this one at least,” said Owens McClair.
Rutledge was supporting his friends in the Sin City Deciples Motorcycle Club that night.Owens McClair said her brother was always there to help and he’ll continue to do that as an organ donor.
“He wanted to help and to save a life or two or three. His death was not in vain, to be an organ donor. I think is really profound,” said Owens McClair.
Owens McClair said Rutledge was the protector of the family, a comedian and loved to cook. She showed one of his prized gifts from his two kids — an apron with their handprints painted across it.