Wife Learned Husband Had Been Killed While Live-Tweeting About Car Crash

Wife Learned Husband Had Been Killed While Live-Tweeting About Car Crash
the twitter logo on a computer screen
Alamy
the twitter logo on a computer screen

A wife who live-Tweeted the unfolding events of a fatal car accident found out that her own husband was the victim.

Caran Johnson, 41, who goes by the Twitter handle @ScanCouver began tweeting about a two-car collision in Vancouver.

But as the mum updated her followers on the scene of the accident with information from local news, she became increasingly worried when she realised her husband, Craig, 47, would be travelling home on the same route.

Her tweets quickly became frantic as she wrote that not only was her husband late, but he hadn't answered his phone.

Then she suddenly updated her Tweets with the stark words, 'it's him. he died.'

Mum-of-two Caran first heard about the car accident after the crash over the police scanner on Wednesday afternoon.

She Retweeted news form the local newspaper, the Columbian, reporting that one person had died and that a helicopter had landed to take the injured to hospital.

Then she wrote to her 1,000 followers: "I'm trying not to panic, but my husband left work early and he drives 205 to get home. He's not answering his phone."

She then started to speculate that her husband had epilepsy and wondered if his condition may have caused a crash.

She then Tweeted: "How long do I wait for him to come home before I call the police?"

In a gut-wrenching moment over one hour after the crash, Caran said her two children had come home – but she had no idea where their father was.

She then went silent on Twitter for around 35 minutes.Then, two hours after her first tweet, in a matter-of-fact update, Caran informed her followers that Craig had indeed been named as the victim of the accident she was live-tweeting only one hour before with the words, 'It's him. He died.'

The Washington State Patrol and Vancouver police confirmed that Craig R. Johnson, 47, was killed about 1:40 p.m, when his Hyundai Elantra crossed the median and collided with a pickup truck.

The truck driver survived but was seriously injured.A woman who was driving the second car involved in the incident was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, a broken femur and a collapsed lung.

In a further development, a local woman, April Sturdevant tweeted Caran in a desperate bid to to pass on 'words of comfort'.

April said she had been at the scene of the accident and had been with Mr Johnson during his 'last breath'.

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