Awful: woman live-tweets deadly accident, finds out her husband was the victim

A Vancouver woman operating the Twitter handle @ScanCouver typically used her account for sharing local news, like traffic and weather reports.

by Mike Bertha

Published Dec. 5, 2013, 8:04 a.m. ET

A Vancouver woman operating the Twitter handle @ScanCouver typically used her account for sharing local news, like traffic and weather reports.

On December 4th, Caran Johnson was on her way home when she encountered a bit of traffic caused by an accident on a section of road that she was particularly cautious of. As she tweeted about what she saw while waiting, she realized that her husband hadn't made it home. Slowly, as she tried to get authorities to help her reach him, she was informed that her husband was, in fact, the victim of the crash she had been tweeting about.

Emergency responders are on the way to a 2-car collision on I-205 SB near 83rd Street. Move over for them and give them some room. #VanWa

#Clark911 Emergency responders are putting a Life Flight helicopter on standby for the I-205 accident.

@Col_cops i hate that section of I205 S. too many on ramps, speeders and too few lanes.

They said they are so close to SWWMC, they can take the patient there, instead of Lifeflight. #clark911

#Clark911 #pdxtraffic One confirmed fatality in I-205 accident says @wspd5pio

@Col_cops @wspd5pio omg that is so horrible!!!

nice, two vehicles went around officer blocking onramp to I205S. lame-o's!

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.

@KF7PSC well he uses his bluetooth, so he would answer his phone. he also wasn't feeling good so his work was concerned when he left

I just called his work and he was feeling faint when he left work. #panic

i just called 911 and they transferred me after I gave them his license number and told me that they will call me back. wtf?

@JKCline86 @troyglidden i am really hoping that is the reason. and if its not him, then where is he?

it's him. he died

Johnson continued to tweet about her disbelief and her interaction with family members. She talked about her sons and her mother and mother-in-law. On the morning of the 5th, she was back to tweeting about police looking for an endangered infant.

After the whole Diane in 7A fiasco, it may be a little more difficult to belief that something like this actually happened. But, the @ScanCouver account goes back a while and has sent out nearly 14,000 tweets over that time, including countless interactions with local news outlets about crime and traffic. [KATU, h/t Gawker]