On a rain-slicked Sunday evening in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the lives of two individuals—Gary Michael Johnson, 74, of North Wilkesboro, and Easton Kinnedi Townsend, 18, of Ronda—intersected in a sudden and irreversible moment. Around 10 p.m. on North Carolina Highway 268, near the vicinity of Abtco Road, a head-on collision between a westbound Nissan…