A young couple preparing for their wedding next month is now faced with incredible loss and a life-changing prognosis. It all happened in the blink of an eye on the side of a busy road in Fort Worth.
When MaryAnn Davis answered the phone Thursday morning it was a paramedic on the other end. Her fiancé, Richard Horvat, had been hurt.
“So, I figured maybe he got into an accident and hit his leg. And then she told me that he had been hit on the highway. And it was the worst moment of my life. And I didn’t know what to do,” Davis said.
She rushed to be by his side, and the news got worse. Doctors told her Horvat’s father, Sonny Johnson, was with him at the time and did not survive. Fort Worth Police said it happened on Northbound Interstate 35W, just north of the 28th Street overpass.
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Police said Richard Horvat had run out of gas and called his father for help. The two men were outside of the car when a driver traveling behind a semi swerved off course. Police told NBC 5 the driver veered out of the way to miss the semi and hit the two men who were standing outside of the vehicle at the time.
Davis, just 22, said her fiancé Richard, just 20, learned of the death of his father and that he would lose his leg and need a prosthetic.
“He told me that he thought that he was going to die,” said Davis. “And he told me that he got all the strength he had to pick himself up on that one good railing and he told God, ‘I’m not done yet.’”
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For now, the wedding is on hold as the young couple is being tested in unimaginable circumstances and anticipates the financial struggles that lie ahead.
“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 said. “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.”
Investigators are looking at whether speed or road conditions were a factor in the crash. The driver of the other vehicle was also taken to the hospital and survived. We’re told the Traffic Investigation Unit will conduct a full investigation to determine whether anyone was at fault or if any charges will be filed.
Family members have started a GoFundMe account for Richard's prosthetic leg.
