An unthinkable accident mars many lives in an instant.
By Raif Karerat
An Illinois bride tragically died just minutes after saying “I do” to her betrothed when the motorcycle she and the groom were riding to the reception crashed, family said.
Jana Miles-Burnett, 40, exchanged vows with William Burnett, 31, in a city park in Buckner, Illinois about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
“After two months, they knew they wanted to be together,” the woman’s 22-year-old daughter, Sarah Smillie, told Inside Edition. “There wasn’t a time that I had seen her happier. If they were together, she was smiling.
After being pronounced husband and wife, the couple hopped on Burnett’s motorcycle and waved on family to start a procession to the reception, Smillie’s husband, Khole Smillie said.
It was during the procession that a deer ran onto the road and into the newlyweds’ lane, causing a crash that threw Miles-Burnett, 40, to the ground.
Still wearing her wedding gown, the bride was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead an hour later.
“There were three or four motorcycles together and William tried to swerve and did everything he could. It (the deer) had turned around and darted right at the bike. There’s some things you cannot control,” Khole Smillie said. “Deer were going crazy that night. It’s mating season and it’s a rural road. Coming back, we saw 30 deer in a 20-minute ride running across the road.”
In the days since the accident, Khole Smillie set up a GoFundme page to offset funeral and memorial costs; at the time of publication it has raised more than $4,000.