LAWTEY, Fla. – News4JAX learned the names of the victims in Saturday’s single-vehicle crash in Bradford County that left a 3-year-old and an adult killed and three other children seriously injured.
The mother of 40-year-old Angela Sippel said she couldn’t believe the news when she was told that her daughter and granddaughter, 3-year-old Eden Sippel, were killed Saturday morning.
The crash happened along U.S. 301 and Northwest 246 Street. Around 10:45 a.m., an SUV was heading south on U.S. 301 when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle went off the right side of the roadway and into a ditch. The SUV then went airborne, going through a small field onto Northwest 246th Street, and overturned, coming to a stop against a building along the street, troopers said.
Susan Goodrich said she last saw her daughter and granddaughter about a week before the incident and never imagined this would happen.
“It was unbelievable to me because I had just seen them a week prior and we were here,” Goodrich said. “I had a little birthday party. It was shocking and devastating.”
Goodrich told New4JAX that Sippel’s three other children 10-year-old Niyah, 7-year-old Joslyn and 5-year-old Jude were taken to the hospital in serious condition.
Sippel and her 3-year-old daughter died at the scene.
The Florida Highway Patrol report said none of the children wore seatbelts or restraints.
The report did say Sippel was wearing a seatbelt.
Goodrich said she visited her grandchildren at the hospital and mentioned that two of the kids could be out of the hospital in a week or so.
“Joslyn, she’s probably in the best shape. She has a broken ankle and some lacerations,” Goodrich said. “There’s a little boy. His name is Jude. He is five and he had an orbital bone breakage around the eye. Niyah, the oldest. She’s having several skin graphs and they do need plastic surgery.”
She also said the doctors told her that Niyah might have to be in a wheelchair for a month.
The family started a GoFundMe to help with medical assistance.