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'He got to be a dad, but only for 21 months': Widow of trucker killed in Route 8 crash mourns her husband

Katie Stevens wants the world to remember Jason this way: as a comedian, a doting father, an amazing husband, always surrounded by friends.

CONNEAUT, Ohio — Katie Stevens says she married the love of her life

"He was funny, he was loud," she laughed. "The opposite of me."

She wed Jason Stevens back in 2018, and they were raising their daughter Amelia together. Katie was waiting for him the day of the accident in Macedonia, and when he wouldn't return her calls, she knew something was wrong.

"Then I had seen that WKYC had an article about a crash and a tanker trucker had died," she remembered. "I had a feeling."

Katie wants the world to remember Jason this way: as a comedian, a doting father, an amazing husband, always surrounded by friends. Not the way he died.

However, she does have questions.

"I would like to know what happened," she said. "Something happened on the bridge that day, and I don't know what it was."

Jason was killed when the tanker truck he was driving went off the I-271 bridge onto state Route 8, bursting into flames. Video was taken by many drivers who were hoping and praying for the man driving the vehicle with 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel.

The prayers are now needed for Katie and Jason's parents. He was an only child

"He said he just wanted to be a dad; that's all he wanted to be in his life," Katie recalled. "Then he got to be a dad, but only for 21 months. It was such a short time he got to be a dad, and he'll miss so much."

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