Honeymoon Tragedy : Wheel Smashes Into Car, Kills Newlywed

Marie Lawson never expected to be planning her son’s funeral the day after his wedding. Michael Leroy Lawson, 37, was killed Sunday afternoon when a runaway wheel from another vehicle crashed into his windshield, crushing him. His 27-year-old bride, Jan Gibson Lawson, was only slightly injured, police said.

The couple, with Michael Lawson at the wheel, were driving north on U.S. 101 near Refugio Beach when the wheel came loose from an oncoming car, bounced across the center divider and crashed into their Honda Accord, said California Highway Patrol Officer Maury Kane.

Michael Lawson, an assistant manager of a grocery store in Pacific Palisades, died of multiple skull fractures, according to the Santa Barbara County coroner’s office.

Left Few Hours Earlier

“It’s just unbelievable,” said Marie Lawson, the groom’s mother. “We’d just waved goodby to them a few hours earlier.”

The couple were married Saturday in the backyard of Michael Lawson’s parents’ home in Granada Hills in a service attended by about 80 friends and family members. The next morning the families gathered for a big breakfast in a Granada Hills restaurant. After eating, they returned to the home of the groom’s parents, where the couple opened their gifts.

The newlyweds then left for Cambria, where they planned to spend a week in a relative’s house and make side trips to San Francisco and Monterey.

“I haven’t really thought what I’m going to do next,” said Jan Lawson, a cashier for the same supermarket chain. She had met her husband on the job. “Right now I’m just trying to take one day at a time.”

She said her husband must have realized what was happening in the instant before his death. “The last thing he said was ‘Oh, my God!’ ” she recalled.

The driver of the southbound car, Albert St. John, 25, of Newbury Park, escaped unharmed after managing to bring his car under control after his left rear wheel came off. The Lawsons’ car stalled almost immediately.

Driver Not Cited

Kane said no charges were filed against St. John because inspectors could not find any pre-existing mechanical defects on his 1978 Chrysler LeBaron that would result in the loss of a wheel. The investigation is continuing.

“It looks like the lug nuts had worked loose,” Kane said. “He told us he hadn’t had any work done on the car since he’d bought it in March.”

Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at the Granada Hills Presbyterian Church. Aside from his wife and mother, survivors include Lawson’s father, a 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and a 24-year-old brother.