SUV crash that killed 9 family members after matriarch’s 80th birthday celebration in Florida

It was a weekend to celebrate a beloved family matriarch, surrounded by generations of her loved ones, at the disco-themed 80th birthday bash.

But it ended in tragedy after an SUV carrying 10 family members across South Florida veered off a two-lane country road and into a canal in a remote part of western Palm Beach County, killing 9 people, six of them children.

Patricia Edwards’ extended family and loved ones traveled from across the country to celebrate her Saturday as she entered her eighth decade, dressed in bell-colored pants and peace sign jewelry, according to social media posts.

“I just wanted to say (thank you) to all my family that traveled to Florida for my mom’s 80th birthday party,” her daughter Pamela Wiggins posted on Facebook.

“My mom was very happy and I’ll post pics later,” Wiggins wrote just after midnight on Monday. “(I love you all.”

But Wiggins, 56, never got a chance to share all those photos and memories. She was pronounced dead less than eight hours later after police found the 2023 Ford Explorer she was driving, with nine of her family inside, veered off a rural stretch of the Hatton Highway near Belle Glade , and flipped upside down into a ditch on the side of the road.

Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, while five died at the hospital. In addition to Wiggins, the dead were identified as Leiana Alyse Hall, 30; Anyia Monique Lee Tucker, 21; Michael Anthony Hall Jr., 14; Hall Imani Andre Ajani, 8; Kamdien Edwards, 5; Yasire Smith, 5; Newspaper Mack, 3; and Naleia Tucker, 1. Jorden Rickey Hall, 26, was rescued and said to be in serious condition.

The accident drew the attention of the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates certain vehicle accidents. Board member Alvin Brown said during a news conference that investigators arrived in Belle Glade on Tuesday and will work with Palm Beach County deputies next week. A preliminary report should be ready in about a month.

“We investigate accidents 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 accident was a catastrophic, tragic event, and that’s why we’re here.”

It’s the latest tragedy associated with South Florida’s extensive network of man-made canals and waterways, which were originally dug to drain the vast grassy wetlands of the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.

Representatives for the state Department of Health and the Department of Highway and Motor Vehicle Safety said their agencies do not specifically track deaths related to canal accidents.

But a South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation published in 2001 found that nearly 100 people died after their vehicles plunged into canals or bodies of water in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties during for five years in the late 1990s.

Investigators say Wiggins lost control of the vehicle while driving west on the two-lane road in a remote part of the county, where sugarcane fields stretch seemingly endlessly to the horizon and where farm ditches border highways.

Wiggins failed to navigate a left turn as the road curved south, sending the car careening into a guardrail before flipping into the canal below, according to the accident report.

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. Hectares of sugar cane dominate the landscape here, not palm trees.

“The landscape there is predominantly rural, predominantly agricultural. Honestly, it’s no different than most rural agricultural areas in the rest of the country,” said Eric Dumbaugh, who directs a road safety center at Florida Atlantic University in Palm Beach County. .

Dumbaugh said accidents on rural highways like this one often follow a pattern, where drivers experience a kind of “highway hypnosis” — driving down a flat, straight and often dark road until a curve takes them by surprise. “And then, all of a sudden, there’s a sudden twist,” he said. “A lot of times there’s not a lot of shoulder there, so when you run off the road, you hit whatever happens to be on the side of it. Which 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 waiting for the loved ones of the victims, who just a few days ago were celebrating an important milestone in the family.

“I keep saying it’s a nightmare,” family member Dawn Wiggins-Ely posted on Facebook. “Lord, we need you.”

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David Fischer contributed from Miami.