Dwayne Haskins’ wife said husband’s car had run out of gas before he was killed
The wife of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins called Florida 911 dispatchers shortly after he was fatally struck by a dump truck earlier this month, saying his car had run out of gas and she was worried because he wasn’t answering the phone, according to recordings released on Wednesday.
Kalabrya Haskins, who was calling from Pittsburgh and unaware of the accident, told a Florida Highway Patrol dispatcher on 9 April that her husband had called from near Fort Lauderdale to say he was walking to get gas and would call her back. When she didn’t hear back from the former Ohio State star, she told the dispatcher she tried to call him but he wasn’t answering.
“I just want somebody to go in the area and see if his car is there and if he’s OK and if anything happened to him,” she said, her voice breaking. “It’s not like him” to not call back, she added.
The highway patrol had already received numerous calls about the accident that happened around dawn on
Interstate 595 near Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport. But the dispatcher did not appear to know yet that paramedics had arrived and found Haskins dead. He had been in Florida training with Steelers teammates.
“I don’t want you to panic, but I am going to be honest with you,” the dispatcher told Kalabrya Haskins. “We do have an incident on the highway, but I can’t confirm if that’s your husband or not.”
The dispatcher then told her to “hang tight” while she tried to get more information. While on hold, Kalabrya Haskins cried and prayed, but her words were mostly unintelligible. “Please Lord, please Lord,” she said.
The dispatcher then came back on the call. She told Kalabrya Haskins to stay by her phone and someone would call her.
The accident report released on Wednesday says witnesses told investigators Haskins was trying to cross the highway when he went into the path of the dump truck. The truck knocked him into the path of a car, which also
struck him. The report did not place blame on any of the drivers who struck the 24-year-old Haskins.
Haskins starred at Ohio State in 2018, setting several school passing records and being named the MVP in both the Big Ten Championship game and in the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl win over the Washington Huskies. He was a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft and was a member of the Steelers and the Washington Commanders.
“My husband was more than a great football player,” Kalabrya Haskins said in a statement earlier this week. “He had the smile of a rainbow that touched the diversity of so many. He will forever rest and remain in our hearts til the end of time.”