It was meant to be a joyous weekend celebrating a cherished family matriarch, as generations gathered to honor her at a disco-themed 80th birthday party. However, the festivities turned to heartbreak when an SUV carrying 10 family members veered off a rural South Florida road and plunged into a canal, resulting in the tragic loss of nine lives, including six children.
Patricia Edwards’ extended family had traveled from all over the country to mark this milestone. On Saturday, she danced into her eighth decade, dressed in vibrant tie-dye bell bottoms and peace sign jewelry, as captured in social media posts.
“Just wanted to say thank you to all my family that traveled to Florida for my mom’s 80th bday party,” her daughter Pamela Wiggins shared on Facebook.
“My mom really enjoyed herself, and I will post pictures later,” Wiggins wrote just after midnight on Monday. “Love you all.”
Tragically, Wiggins, 56, never got the chance to share those memories. Less than eight hours later, she was pronounced dead after the 2023 Ford Explorer she was driving, with nine family members inside, lost control on a rural stretch of Hatton Highway near Belle Glade and overturned into a canal.
Four people were declared dead at the scene, and five others died at the hospital. Alongside Wiggins, the victims 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. The sole survivor, Jorden Rickey Hall, 26, was reported to be in serious condition.
The crash has drawn the attention of the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates severe vehicle accidents. During a news conference, board member Alvin Brown stated that investigators had arrived in Belle Glade on Tuesday and would collaborate with Palm Beach County deputies over the next week. A preliminary report is expected within a month.
“We investigate crashes that we can learn from, those that are catastrophic in nature,” Brown said. “We have the best investigators in the country, the gold standard. And we believe that this crash was a catastrophic, tragic event, which is why we’re here.”
This incident adds to the tragic history linked to South Florida’s extensive network of man-made canals and waterways, initially dug to drain the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.
Though state agencies like the Department of Health and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles do not specifically track fatalities related to canal crashes, a South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation in 2001 revealed that nearly 100 people died in such accidents in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties over a five-year period in the late 1990s.
According to investigators, Wiggins lost control of the vehicle as she traveled west on the two-lane road, a remote area where endless sugarcane fields stretch toward the horizon, bordered by agricultural canals. The vehicle failed to navigate a left curve, striking a guardrail before flipping into the canal below.
This area, near Lake Okeechobee, lies about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the luxurious beaches of Palm Beach Island. Here, the landscape is dominated by vast fields of sugarcane, not palm trees.
“The landscape out there is predominantly rural, largely agricultural. It’s honestly not unlike most rural agricultural areas throughout the rest of the country,” explained Eric Dumbaugh, who leads a road safety center at Florida Atlantic University in Palm Beach County.
Dumbaugh noted that crashes on rural highways often follow a pattern, where drivers experience “highway hypnosis”—driving on flat, straight, often dark roads, only to be caught off guard by an unexpected turn. “And then suddenly there’s a sharp turn,” he said. “There’s often little shoulder, so when you run off the roadway, you run into whatever is there. It could be a tree, a ditch, or, in Palm Beach County’s case, often a canal.”
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The magnitude of the tragedy is still sinking in for the victim’s loved ones, who were just days ago celebrating a significant family event.
“I keep saying it’s a nightmare,” wrote family member Dawn Wiggins-Ely on Facebook. “Lord, we need you.”
