Just days ago, Ryan M. Hair, a 30-year-old Oregon City father of two children, was helping his parents' neighbors put chains on their car to help them drive in the snow.

So when they heard that Hair died early Christmas morning at Legacy Emanuel Hospital and Health Center after losing control of his semi-trailer truck and driving off Interstate 5 southbound in Kelso, they were deeply saddened.

"He had been talking about having to go up to Washington, but the roads were closed," said Annie Bartel, who had seen him Sunday at his parents' home in Oregon City.

Hair was married and had two children, a son about 9 or 10 years old, and a 1 1/2 -year-old daughter. The couple and children were at Hair's parents home last weekend because they had lost electricity due to the storm.

Hair drove for Portland-based RLT Inc. for at least six to seven months. He had picked up a load in Tigard Tuesday afternoon and was headed to the area of Kent, Wash., delivering business envelopes.

Washington State Patrol said Hair was driving the approximately 34-foot-long McKinney trailer truck southbound on Interstate 5, approaching the Allen Street exit in Kelso, when his truck veered to the left, collided with the guardrail and fell at least 15 feet from the highway, onto Allen Street below. Washington State troopers were called at 7:06 a.m, and found Hair's truck rolled onto its side. Emergency personnel spent about 45 minutes trying to extricate Hair from the vehicle.

Washington State Trooper Phillip Toma, one of the lead investigators, concluded that McKinney was driving too fast for the conditions. He was traveling about 60 mph, state police said.

Though he had chains on his truck when he left his trucking company lot in Portland Tuesday, the truck didn't have chains when it was involved in the accident. Washington State Police said chains weren't required on that stretch of the interstate Wednesday.

Hair was transported by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter Wednesday from St. John's Medical Center in Longview, Wash. to Legacy Emanuel Hospital and Health Center, where he died at 2:18 a.m. today from head injuries.

Efrain Torres, a co-worker, said he had last seen Hair as he was helping shovel snow and clearing the trucking company's lot Tuesday afternoon off Airport Way before Hair drove off about 3 p.m. to pick up his envelope load in Tigard.

"I was helping him to chain up so he could take off and pick up his load," Torres said.

Torres spoke to him again that night when Hair had encountered a flat tire and was stopped at the Jubitz Truck stop in North Portland.

Torres said he had learned that Hair, who was on his way home, was in the fast lane on the southbound freeway, having just changed lanes to pass a car that was slow in front of him. "When he tried to get back to the right lane again, he sped up again or he lost control," Torres said.

Before working for RLT Inc., Hair worked for Key Trucking in Vancouver. Torres described Hair as friendly and respectful, and excited about his job, even in the snowy conditions.

"We all take this risk driving in this weather, but we all have to pay bills," Torres said.