A tragic highway accident in Fort Worth has halted a young couple’s wedding plans.
Richard Horvat and Mary Ann Davis were set to marry next month. Instead, they are grappling with a life-changing event.
Last Thursday morning, Horvat, 20, ran out of gas while driving on the northbound lane of I-35W. He pulled over on the shoulder, just north of the 28th Street overpass, and called his 47-year-old father, Sonny Johnson, to come help. The two men were beside the vehicle when catastrophe struck.
An oncoming driver suddenly plowed into the two men, killing Johnson and seriously injuring Horvat to the point that his leg had to be amputated.
The driver, who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, told police they had veered into the median to avoid rear-ending an 18-wheeler they had been driving behind, according to WFAA. Police are investigating the crash to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
In the meantime, Horvat and Davis are adjusting to their new reality.
“I’m so lost in all of this, and my priority right now is just him getting better, and I believe that one day we will have our wedding,” Davis told NBC 5 DFW. “I see him [doing] OK, only by the grace of God. It’s only by the grace of God that we’re getting through this.”
Davis, 22, received a call from a paramedic the morning of the crash. She was told Horvat had been in an accident on the highway.
“And it was the worst moment of my life. And I didn’t know what to do,” Davis recalled.
October is National Pedestrian Safety Month, a national campaign by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to bring awareness to drivers and pedestrians alike. In 2021, 7,388 pedestrians were killed and 60,577 were injured in traffic crashes across the country.
Texas has some of the worst traffic safety statistics, with Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington figuring 10th, 15th, and 17th, respectively, on Forbes’ recent list of cities where drivers are most likely to get in car accidents, as covered by The Dallas Express.
Similarly, a report by the North Central Texas Council of Governments reported increases in traffic fatalities in Dallas and Collin Counties in 2022.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has launched an awareness-building campaign known as #EndTheStreakTX to promote safer driving practices in the Lone Star State.
Reacting to the recent accident in Fort Worth, TxDOT spokesperson Alice Rios Shaw urged caution before exiting one’s vehicle if caught in a similar predicament on a motorway.
“You have to gauge how busy it is or how unsafe it may be for you to exit your vehicle,” she said, according to WFAA.
“Only 1% of crashes in Texas involve pedestrians, but they do makeup 19% of all traffic deaths. So in the last five years, pedestrian traffic fatalities in Texas increased 29.5%,” she added.
