Wife Unknowingly Live-Tweets Car Accident that Resulted in Husband Death
A woman in Washington unknowingly live-tweeted her husband's fatal car wreck.
Caran Johnson, who uses the Twitter handle @ScanCouver and a police scanner to live-tweet police actions in Vancouver, Wash., started tweeting the accident on Interstate 205 at about 2 p.m. local time.
Trooper William Finn, a spokesman with the Washington State Patrol, was also tweeting the accident under the handle @wspd5pio. Johnson is a follower of Finn's and the two have previously conversed through the micro-blogging site, but have never met, according to CNN.
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"This accident sounds horrible," Johnson wrote in a tweet posted at 2:01 p.m. PT under the handle @ScanCouver.
About 10 minutes later, at 2:11 p.m. Finn tweeted, "Vancouver - SB 205 @ Padden - Fatality collision. WB Padden to SB 205 is closed. Right lane SB 205 also closed in area. Use alt route!"
Then at 2:17 p.m. Johnson posted, "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."
Since the two have conversed before regarding traffic accidents Johnson decided to reach out to Finn to see if she could find out more information about the crash.
At 2:20 p.m. PT, Johnson sent a tweet to Finn, "@wspd5pio do you have descriptions of involved vehicles?"
"@ScanCouver sorry. Not yet." Finn replied.
At that moment Finn decided not to continue posting information about the crash in case the victim was known by anyone following the wreck.
"Immediately, I went into overdrive mode and I stopped tweeting the whole thing. I didn't want someone to find out over Twitter that their husband passed away. I didn't want her to find out that way. That is a hard thing to go through," Finn told CNN. "I didn't put a picture on Twitter just in case that was her husband," he said.
About two hours after the initial tweet Johnson realized the victim was her husband.
"it's him. he died," Johnson posted at 3:50 p.m.
Johnson's husband was the only person to die in the accident that is still under investigation. Authorities suspect the car crossed the grass median and into oncoming traffic, hitting another vehicle. The driver of the second vehicle was seriously injured and taken to a local hospital.
"I feel terrible. I still feel terrible," Finn told CNN. "Our hearts go out to the family. This person was a member of our community and we just lost him."
