On October 1, 2009, Vickie and Curt Johnson were on their way to the beach with their daughter Abbey, and Vickie’s stepchildren, Crystal and Cody, for a long-overdue vacation. As they headed across a bridge near Florence, SC, they noticed a stalled dump truck in the right lane. The dump truck had its flashers on, and the Johnson family found themselves stuck behind the dump truck and unable to get into the left lane because of traffic. As the family waited for an opportunity to move around the dump truck, Curt looked in his rear view mirror, and shouted, “Y’all brace yourselves. Here comes something big and fast.” Those turned out to be his last words.
When Vickie came to, the car was filled with smoke, and Crystal and Curt were dead. Vickie, Abbey, and Cody survived the crash with serious injuries.
The Johnson family later found out that the truck driver’s cell phone records indicated that he had been using his cell phone around the time of the crash.