Washington (AFP) - Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins had run out of gas and was walking to get some when he was struck by a truck and killed in Florida, a 911 emergency call indicates.
The call was made by Haskins's wife Kalabrya Haskins, who told the operator her husband had run out of gas on a Florida highway and had set off in search of fuel.
He had called her at their home in Pittsburgh to tell her he was stranded.When he never called back and his phone stopped responding she made the call to Florida emergency services.
"I just want somebody to go to the area to see if his car's there, see if he's OK, if anything happened to him....That's just not like him to not call me back and for his phone to go dead.He was stranded by himself.He was walking, though," Kalabrya says in the recording, which was obtained by a reporter in Miami.
The operator responds that there was a report of an incident on that highway but that she could not confirm an identity and tells Kalabrya to not panic.
In another 911 call a witness describes seeing a dump truck hit a man.
Haskins 24, was in Boca Raton, Florida, on the weekend of April 8 to train with Steelers teammates.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Haskins was walking on a "limited access facility for unknown reasons" at 6:37 a.m.and attempted to cross the westbound lanes of the motorway when he was struck.
The FHP said it had opened a traffic homicide investigation, but has yet to disclose further details.
The Washington Commanders made Haskins the 15th overall selection in the 2019 NFL draft.
He spent two seasons in Washington, where injuries to others saw him make seven starts as a rookie, before signing with Pittsburgh last season.
He was inactive for all but one game last season for the Steelers, who were led by veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
