Sole Survivor of Car Crash That Killed 9 Tried to Save Family, Witness Says: 'He Was Saying, 'Please Help Me' '

Mar. 15, 2025

The scene of the accident.Photo:WPLG/Youtube

WPLG/Youtube

A 26-year-old man, who was the sole survivor in adeadly Florida crash that killed nineof his family members, tried to pull his family out to safety after the incident, according to a witness.

Witness Warren Prescott toldWPBFhe was one of the first people who came upon the scene and called 911, before getting out of his car to help. He said he found the young man — later identified as Jorden Rickey Hall — in the canal, diving underwater as he tried to get his family members out of the submerged vehicle.

“He was saying, ‘Please help me, please help me. I’ve lost my whole family. This is my whole family,’ " Prescott recalled to the outlet.

“I know I read that he was injured, and I’m sure he was,” Prescott continued. “I mean, he was like a machine. He was diving under the water nonstop and he had to be doing that for quite a while before I got there because he had already removed six of the victims.”

Prescott told WPBF that he helped carry some of the passengers that Prescott removed from the car to the canal bank and tried to administer CPR. He said he eventually flagged down a “passing work van” with “four or five guys” inside, who got out of their car and tried “to move” the submerged SUV “into a better position” so they could get out the remaining “children trapped in the car.”

He said that Hall kept trying to dive under the car to find more family members until police got to the scene and pulled him away so they could send divers to search for the rest of his loved ones in the submerged vehicle.

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“He repeated multiple times that it was his whole family in the car. ‘I just lost my whole family. Why? Why me? Why am I still here?’ It was one of the most heart-wrenching things I’ve ever seen,” Prescott told WPBF.

“The guy was a total hero. It unfortunately wasn’t the best outcome, but he really tried his hardest and tried to save his family, and it was really something astonishing to see,” Prescott added.

A photo of the nine victims in the fatal crash, as seen on a GoFundMe for the family.GoFundMe

GoFundMe

Four of the SUV’s occupants were pronounced dead at the scene, while the others were transported to a local hospital, where they later died,authorities confirmed in a press release.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as driver Pamela Wiggins, 56 — who would have celebrated her birthday on Aug. 6 — and passengers Leiana Alyse Hall, 30; Anyia Tucker, 21; Michael Anthony Hall, Jr., 14; Imani Hall, 9; Kamdien Edwards, 5; Yasire Smith, 5; Ziaire Mack, 3; and Naleia Tucker, 23 months, perThe Palm Beach Post.

source: people.com