It was a weekend to celebrate the beloved matriarch of a family, surrounded by generations of her loved ones at her disco-themed 80th birthday party.
But it ended in tragedy when an SUV carrying 10 family members careened off a two-lane highway and into a canal in a remote area of western Palm Beach County in South Florida, killing nine people, including six children.
Patricia Edwards' extended family and loved ones came from across the country to celebrate her Saturday as she entered her eighth decade in tie-dye bell-bottoms and peace sign jewelry, according to social media posts.
“I just wanted to thank my entire family who traveled to Florida for my mom's 80th birthday party,” her daughter Pamela Wiggins posted on Facebook.
“My mom really enjoyed it and I will post pictures later,” Wiggins wrote just after midnight Monday. “(H)onestly all.”
But Wiggins, 56, never got the chance to share all those photos and memories. Less than eight hours later, she was pronounced dead after officers discovered the 2023 Ford Explorer she was driving, with nine of her family members inside, had veered off a rural stretch of Hatton Highway near Belle Glade and landed upside down in a roadside canal.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, while five died at the hospital. In addition to Wiggins, the deceased were identified as Leiana Alyse Hall, 30; Anyia Monique Lee Tucker, 21; Michael Anthony Hall Jr., 14; Imani Andre Ajani Hall, 8; Kamdien Edwards, 5; Yasire Smith, 5; Ziaire Mack, 3; and Naleia Tucker, 1. Jorden Rickey Hall, 26, was rescued and was listed in serious condition.
The crash drew the attention of the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates certain vehicle accidents. Board member Alvin Brown said at a news conference that investigators arrived in Belle Glade on Tuesday and will work with Palm Beach County police over the next week. A preliminary report should be ready in about a month.
“We investigate crashes that we can learn from, that are catastrophic in nature,” Brown said. “We have the best investigators in the country, we have the gold standard. And we believe this crash was a catastrophic, tragic event, and that's why we're here.”
It is the latest tragedy linked to South Florida's vast network of man-made canals and waterways, originally dug to drain the vast grasslands of the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.
Representatives from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Road Safety and Motor Vehicles said their agencies do not specifically track the number of deaths resulting from canal accidents.
However, a 2001 South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation found that nearly 100 people died over a five-year period in the late 1990s after their vehicles crashed into canals or bodies of water in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
Investigators said Wiggins lost control of her vehicle as she drove west on the two-lane highway in a remote part of the region where sugar cane fields stretch seemingly endlessly to the horizon and agricultural canals run alongside the highways.
Wiggins failed to turn left as the road curved south, causing the car to hit the guardrail and then into the canal, the crash report said.
This part of the county, near Lake Okeechobee, is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) and a world away from the white sands of Palm Beach Island. Acres of sugar cane dominate the landscape here, not palm trees.
“The landscape there is predominantly rural, predominantly agricultural. It's honestly no different than most rural agricultural areas in the rest of the country,” said Eric Dumbaugh, who directs a traffic safety center at Florida Atlantic University in Palm Beach County.
Dumbaugh said accidents on rural highways like this one often follow a pattern, with drivers experiencing a kind of “freeway hypnosis” — they're driving along a flat, straight, often dark road, until a curve catches them off guard. “And then all of a sudden there's a sharp curve,” he said. “There's often not much of a shoulder there, so if you go off the road, you're going to hit whatever's on the side of the road. It could be a tree, right? It could be a ditch. Or in the case of Palm Beach County, it's often a canal.”
The accident is still in full swing for the relatives of the victims, who just a few days ago celebrated an important milestone in their family life.
“I keep saying it’s a nightmare,” family member Dawn Wiggins-Ely posted on Facebook. “Lord we need you.”
___
David Fischer contributed from Miami.
___
Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
