Nine members of a family, including six children, were killed in a horrific car accident on Tuesday when an SUV went off a Florida road and into a canal. The family was visiting Florida to celebrate the matriarch’s 80th birthday.
Pamela Wiggins, the 56-year-old SUV driver, revealed on social media that her maternal relatives had travelled from across the country to attend Patricia Edwards’ disco-themed birthday party on Saturday.
Wiggins, who celebrated her birthday on Wednesday, shared two photos of her family dressed in ’70s-style wigs, peace earrings and psychedelic clothing in front of a “Let’s Boogie” sign.
“I want to thank all my family for coming all the way to Florida for my mom’s 80th birthday party. I truly appreciate the love,” Wiggins wrote on Facebook just after midnight on Monday.
“My mom really enjoyed it and I’ll post pictures later. Everyone loves it.”
But she didn’t post the photo.
Just eight hours later, Wiggins lost control of his seven-seater SUV, with nine passengers all not wearing seat belts, while driving on a rural road on Hatton Highway near Belle Glade.
The six children killed were: 1-year-old Naleia Tucker, 3-year-old Ziaia Mack, 5-year-olds Yasire Smith and Kamdeen Edwards, 8-year-old Imani Andre Ajani Hall, and 14-year-old Michael Anthony Hall Jr.
Wiggins, her daughter, Leiana Alice Hall, 30, and her cousin, Anya Monique Lee Tucker, 21, also died.
Wiggins especially thanked two women who helped organize a birthday party for Edwards on social media just hours before the tragedy.
Jorden Rickie Hall, 26, is the only survivor of the crash and remains in critical condition.
All occupants of the car were from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Chesapeake, Virginia, according to police reports.
A preliminary police report said Wiggins was unable to make a sharp left turn for “unknown reasons” and ran off the road.
Some experts believe she may have realized her change of direction too late.
The area where the tragedy occurred is surrounded by seemingly endless sugarcane fields, which may have caused confusion in the driver’s brain.
“We’re not going to be able to do that,” said Eric Dambaugh, director of the Center for Traffic Safety at Florida Atlantic University in Palm Beach County. He told the Associated Press Accidents on these rural highways often follow a pattern in which drivers experience a kind of “highway hypnosis” — traveling along a flat, straight, dark road, then suddenly, unexpectedly, collapse on a curve.
“Then all of a sudden there’s a sharp turnaround,” he said.
“There’s very little shoulder there, so if you go off the road, you’re going to hit something on the side of the road. It could be a tree, you know? It could be a ditch. In the case of Palm Beach County, it’s often a canal.”
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but the National Transportation Safety Board called it a “catastrophic and tragic event.”
“We keep saying it’s a nightmare,” one family member posted on Facebook. “God, we need you.”
