Palm Coast residents Kevin G. Walsh and Jessica L. Darby died the night of Feb. 11 after a construction truck struck them while backing up, minutes after its driver had tried to help the pair get their vehicle unstuck from the mud.

Walsh, 29, had tried to drive his pickup through the Palm Harbor Parkway extension construction zone near Forest Grove Drive at about 10:30 p.m. when the pickup became mired in the soft dirt, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

He called some friends — Darby, 22, and her fiancé — to help get the truck unstuck, but they had no luck and asked construction worker Paul Beagan, 60, if he could use his Mack dump truck to pull the pickup free.

Beagan tried, but it didn't work. He backed up to leave — not noticing that Walsh and Darby were still behind his truck — and struck both of them. They died at the scene, according to the FHP report.

Beagan was taken to Florida Hospital Flagler with chest pain.