ARIZONA, USA — It began as a typical day.
Ryan Gooding woke up at 5 a.m. and got ready for work. His drive to Coolidge from his South Phoenix home was about an hour long.
“He left at his same usual time,” said Nikki Johnson. “I usually wake up, smooch him, get back into bed, and sleep.”
But Thursday, January 12, would become a tragic day.
At 6:15 a.m., just about 20 minutes into his drive, Gooding was killed near I-10 and Chandler Boulevard when his truck was struck by a commercial vehicle.
Gooding’s truck was one of two vehicles that were sandwiched between two semis that erupted into flames. The crash resulted from a series of collisions involving semi-trucks that the Department of Public Safety believes may have been caused by drivers not paying attention.
“It feels like I was robbed,” Johnson said. “We had all these plans.”
The love of her life
Ryan Gooding and Nikki Johnson were together for ten years. They met through mutual friends one day in northern California when she was passing through.
“I met him, and he just flew my socks off,” she said. “I just loved him right away.”
The couple lived in Hawaii for several years until they made Arizona their permanent home several years ago. Then, in December, Johnson did an ‘unusual’ thing and proposed to Gooding.
The couple was set to tie the knot on June 7 in Las Vegas. They had everything paid for.
“Every day he would wear his engagement ring, and he would say, ‘how did I get you?’ every day. He’d say, ‘I can’t believe you want to marry me.’ And then he would say, ‘you’re going to be mine forever,’” Johnson recalled.
Gooding, she said, was known as the "BFG." which stood for ‘the big friendly giant’ because of his kind personality and size, standing tall at 6 feet, 3 inches.
“In the ten years we were together, I never once heard him raise his voice,” Johnson said. “He never spoke ill at me or anyone; it wasn’t in his nature. It just wasn’t the person that he was.”
Deadly crash
Johnson said her fiancé stopped replying to her messages early in the day but didn’t think much about it since he was supposed to be at work.
She began to worry when Gooding’s work reached out around 11 a.m. and alerted her that he had never made it into the office. Something she said was out of character for him.
Johnson and her family spent the day calling hospitals and the police but got no answers.
“I called his phone, and it was off,” she said. “I Googled it right away, and I saw the crash. I was like, ‘he would not not contact me if he was stuck; maybe his phone died? So, every scenario runs through your head.”
It was around 7 p.m. when her worst fear was confirmed.
“I just kept waiting to hear the garage door, never heard it, and that’s when the trooper showed up; his face, I could just tell it wasn’t good news,” Johnson said.
Gooding leaves behind a 9-year-old son.
Amid her grief, Johnson has a special request.
“Please hug your family tighter than you’ve ever hugged them in your entire life,” she said. “Just do it, don’t hesitate.”
Johnson has set up a GoFundMe account to help with funeral expenses. You can donate here.
You can watch an extended interview with Johnson in the video player below.
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