A car crash took his life. His Palmetto family wants everyone to understand who he was

A week a go, 48-year-old Christopher Williams was driving home from work on U.S. 41 in Palmetto. He was returning from St. Pete when he drove into standing water from a storm that passed through.

His car hydroplaned, crossed the median and crashed into an oncoming vehicle. Williams died immediately.

Williams was a driver for FedEx. In an odd coincidence, another FedEx driver was traveling in the opposite lanes when Williams’ car appeared out of nowhere. The car and truck collided. Williams’ car burst into flames, but according to family, he was already dead from the impact. The other driver had minor injuries.

“So thank God he didn’t die in the fire,” said his brother Jason Williams, the pastor at Mount Raymond Full Gospel Baptist Church in Palmetto.

Williams was the 10th oldest of 12 siblings. Twelve children growing up in a single-family, four-bedroom home with two bathrooms can be an experience. For the Williams children, the experience created a tight bond between brothers and sisters that lives on today. Williams seemed to be the golden child that held that bond together.

“Chris was an integral part of our family,” Jason Williams said. “He believed in God, served in our community and worked at our food bank at the church every weekend. We grew up in a close knit family. We would talk every other day, if not everyday. We are a family that protects each other and is always reaching out to each other and Chris is real important to that.”

The Williams family was raised by a loving mother and father who died in 2018 and 2016, respectively. Even in a family with 12 brothers and sisters, there is always that one child who somehow becomes the apple of his mother’s eye. Williams was that child.

“Chris was the one that, I don’t want to say would get everybody into trouble, but seemed to always get out of trouble,” Jason Williams said. “He was definitely a mother’s a boy. My mother loved all her kids, but when it came to Chris, don’t even talk about him, don’t mistreat him, don’t do anything.”

Williams leaves behind a loving wife, Veronica and their 10-year-old daughter, Johannie, who in turn, was the apple of her father’s eye.

“He’s a loving father,” his brother said. “His daughter was always calling him, even now she does. She misses her dad. She’s a soccer player and he’s her main inspiration and she was his inspiration. He was going to be a soccer coach just so he could coach his daughter’s soccer team. Everyday from work, they would call each other or text each other. He was a great father and when I say they were inseparable, they were inseparable.”

It’s why the Williams family thought it was important to share their brother’s story.

Florida Highway Patrol crash reports are vague, nameless and statistically cold in nature. The family wanted everyone who didn’t know Chris Williams to understand who he was as a man, a friend, a father, a husband, a brother and a member of the community.

“Chris was more than a black male, 48 years old who died in a car crash,” Jason Williams said. “He was a friend, father, brother and someone who if you met him, loved him and he loved you. I want the community to remember him as someone who loved people and people loved him.”

Williams graduated from Palmetto High School in the early 1990s. He was football and basketball standout who is described by his brother as an “all around person with many, many, many friends. Every person that met Chris had a new friend. That’s just Chris. A lovable person.”

Jason Williams said that will be his brother’s legacy when all is said and done. The family continues to receive condolences and Jason Williams is addressing his brother’s death to his parishioners with a simple, but powerful message.

“You never know when the final moment is,” he said. “We don’t know how we’ll be taken out of this world, but we do know it’s going to happen one way or the other. Chris didn’t wake up and realize he was going to die in an accident that day. Spend time with God. Spend time with your family and love unconditionally.

“Forget about all the things going on in the world, the hatred, the racism and all these other things going on. Recognize it. Don’t go along like you don’t see it, but make sure you are loving unconditionally just as God would have us love one another. God don’t see color. He sees the heart ... I tell my parishioners to look at the heart of a person no matter their background.”

How to help

A Gofundme.com page has been established by members of the Lincoln Middle School family where Williams and other family members went. His wife, Veronica, and brother Dwayne are currently employed there and Williams was a familiar face around campus.

Organized by Lia Kaiser and Erica Burton, the page partially reads, “The Lincoln Family would like to show our love and support for Veronica and Johannie by providing as much financial support as possible during this difficult time. These funds will be used to help alleviate the financial burdens of funeral costs, daily expenses, and Johannie’s future educational aspirations.”

A $10,000 goal has been established and as of Thursday, has raised just over $3,000.

A memorial service was planned for Chandlers Funeral Home in Sarasota from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, and burial at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8, at Skyway Memorial Gardens.

This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 1:32 PM.