HARRISONVILLE, MO (KCTV) -
A 33-year-old Lee's Summit mother is dead after being hit by three vehicles after getting out of her car following a minor accident that may have involved a blown tire.
Joy P. Johnson was killed in the accident just before midnight Friday on southbound U.S. Highway 71 just north of Missouri Highway 291 in Cass County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Johnson had a blowout and hit the guard cables.
It was dark, and her car's lights were knocked off. She got out of the vehicle to check out the damage and was standing too close to the roadway.
One car hit her, knocking her down in the highway, then two more.
"She must have been disoriented and in shock that she, in trying to look at the damage, wandered into Hwy. 71," Johnson's husband, Mark Johnson, said.
All three drivers stopped, and authorities don't expect any charges to be filed.
"I don't think it would be right to try and press charges. As terrible as that is to say, and as vindicating as it might feel, it was an accident," he said.
Mark Johnson, called it a terrible accident, but also said that he doesn't blame anyone.
He is now focused on helping Joy Johnson's 11-year-old son heal and remember his mother as she was.
"I told him to cry as hard as he could today and just get it out," he said.
Mark and Joy had actually started going through a divorce, but he was never prepared to lose her from his life, and he knows just how he'll remember her.
"She drew people to her in social situations, she had a smile that would light you up, it would light anybody up. And she cared, she had a real depth of feeling to her that was hard to match," Mark Johnson said.
Mark Johnson and state troopers remind anyone who gets into a minor accident, or breaks down on the side of the highway to stay in their car and call for help.
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