In 911 call, Dwayne Haskins’ wife said he’d run out of gas. He’d already been killed on I-595.
Dwayne Haskins, the young Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback whose early morning death on a South Florida highway two weeks ago had remained shrouded in mystery, was apparently crossing the interstate to get gas for his car when he was struck by a vehicle, according to a 911 call from his wife that was released by investigators on Wednesday.
Haskins, 24, who was in South Florida practicing with his new teammates during the off-season, was killed early the morning of April 9 when a dump truck struck him near a median in the center of the westbound lane of I-595 just west of I-95.
Though the accident happened almost two weeks ago, investigators with the Florida Highway Patrol had remained mostly mum about the circumstances surrounding it. And media reports and statements from the football team on the death of the former Ohio State Buckeye star never offered an explanation for why the he wound up walking on a major highway before sunrise.
More: FHP releases 911 calls following Dwayne Haskins’ death on South Florida highway
An emotional seven-minute call between a woman who said she was Haskins’ wife and a 911 South Florida operator provided the first public explanation. It and other 911 calls were released Wednesday by the Broward Sheriff’s Office
Kalabrya Haskins’s call, tragically, came too late. She was apparently unaware at the time that her husband was already dead.
During the call, Kalabrya Haskins told the operator that her husband called her from the side of a roadway and said he was heading out in search of gas. She began to cry as she told the operator that she called him back repeatedly, but he never answered. She told the operator he was stranded, by himself and walking.
“I kept calling and calling, but he wasn’t answering,” Kalabrya Haskins, who said she was calling from Pittsburgh, told the operator. “I just want somebody to go and see if he’s okay... It’s not like him not to call back.”
Responds the operator: “I don’t want you to panic, but I’m going to be honest, we do have an incident on the highway. But I don’t know if it’s your husband or not.”
Kalabrya Haskins then tells the operator that she had his location, but the area she gave near Marina Mile was quite a ways from where her husband was killed.
After the operator asks about her husband’s age, size and ethnicity, Kalabrya Haskins loses her composure and begins to sob. Her next few words are unintelligible. When the operator puts her on hold, she appears to begin to pray. The words “dear Lord” are heard clearly.
Then just before hanging up, she asks the operator if it was an accident. “I can’t discuss that ma’am. I’m sorry,” she says.
Haskins, who starred for OSU and finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy his sophomore year, was killed just before 7 a.m. when he was struck by a dump truck as tried to cross one of the busiest highways in South Florida, on foot. He was found near a median intersecting the highway. The dump truck driver who struck him pulled over and waited for police.
According to the records released Wednesday by the Florida Highway Patrol, which investigated the accident, Haskins may have been hit by another vehicle after the initial contact.
His agent said at the time that Haskins was in South Florida training with other Steelers quarterbacks, running backs and receivers. Drafted in the first round in 2019 by the Washington Commanders after a pair of less than stellar NFL seasons, he signed last year with the Steelers, hoping to jump-start his career.
Kalabrya Haskins call was actually the last of six calls related to Haskin’s death that were released by BSO. At least one of the other five witnesses claimed to see Haskins get hit. The others said they just saw the body on the roadway.
In one call that lasted just under three minutes, a woman begins to hyperventilate as the 911 operator tries to calm her down and learn exactly where the accident happened.
“There was a man hit in front of me,” the woman said. “I was traveling on the road and I saw a dump truck hit the man.”
When the woman hangs up, the 911 operator calls her back. She says she’s on the right shoulder of the road and the dump truck has stopped. At one point between coughs and cries and after the operator tells her to take a deep breath, the woman says she’s next to Haskins and that Road Rangers had arrived and were diverting traffic.
“Now rescue is here,” she says, before hanging up.
Haskins death took a toll on former and current teammates, who quickly grew to love him, they said. Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool posted a picture of the two of them on Instagram and said “I lost a brother today.”
And Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he was “heartbroken” and “devastated.”
Haskins, originally from New Jersey, became one of the most sought-after high school quarterbacks in the country at Bullis in Potomac, Maryland, committing to OSU in 2016. There, he rode the bench his first two years before catapulting to stardom his sophomore year when he threw for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns with only eight interceptions, earning him first-team all Big Ten Conference honors. He finished third in the Heisman race that year and left school early for the NFL.
The following year the then-Washington Redskins drafted Haskins with the 15th pick in the first round. But he struggled his two years with the team, going 3-10 during starts with 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
When the now-Washington Commanders cut Haskins, he found a home with Tomlin’s Steelers, who had just lost soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to retirement.
Kalabrya and Dwayne Haskins had no children.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 2:38 PM.
