A father and mother were killed and seven children injured in a tragic ATV accident in Piedmont, Alabama, over the Labor Day weekend.
Friends of the deceased have named them as Marcus Ragland and Ashley Hawkins, both from Rome, Georgia, Atlanta News First reports.
Ragland, 34, was a father of 10 with two more children on the way, according to a GoFundMe account set up to support his family, while Hawkins was reportedly a mother of three, two of whom she shared with the deceased.
The fatal accident occurred at around 3.45pm on Saturday afternoon at the Indian Mountain ATV Park, the coroner’s office in Cherokee County said, when a RZR vehicle carrying the two adults and seven children collided at high speed with a second ATV.
The first vehicle travelled 150 feet, rolled over and struck a tree. Ragland, whom his family said had been driving, was killed at the scene while Hawkins was airlifted to hospital in Birmingham where she died shortly afterwards, officials said.
The children involved were aged between one and 12, investigators said. Four were taken by air to the Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center in Rome and the remaining three were transported by road to Birmingham where they are currently receiving treatment. According to the GoFundMe, six of the children hurt in the crash were Ragland’s.
No one in the second ATV was injured, the coroner’s office said, and those on board attempted to come to the aid of the victims at the scene.
At a press conference on Sunday, Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver was asked whether the victims had been wearing seatbelts and whether intoxication had played a part. Sheriff Shaver said his team was waiting on a toxicology report but said they are currently working on the understanding that speeding alone was the cause of the crash.
Ragland’s grieving family has paid tribute to their lost loved one.
“I’m still waiting on him to come through the door but I know he’s not coming,” his mother Felecia Towers told 11 Alive.
Towers said her son was a regular at the ATV park, adding: “This time he wanted to take his children with him, you know, to share the fun. They were ready to go, so it just ended up being a tragedy. I just hate it.
“This is just so hard to deal with. It’s just so hard,” she said. “I’m going to miss him. I loved him so. He was a good boy. He was really fun to be around. He met no strangers. He was friends with everyone.”
Family friend Monica Watkins told WSB-TV 2 Atlanta she was temporarily caring for other children involved in the case and said: “They keep just asking for momma, and I don’t want to say because we haven’t told them about her yet.
“I have to be strong for these babies because I’m going to have to play the mother role. I can never replace their mom, but I’m going to have to feel like mom.
“I want this community to pray with us, but also pray for the other children.”
On Facebook, a woman who identified herself as the mother of one of Ragland’s unborn children paid tribute to him in a post that read: “I’m at a loss for words.. i just want this to be a bad dream.. my baby.. his babies.. my heart is torn into pieces and there’s absolutely nothing i can do.
“I’m angry i’m sad our baby will never get the chance to meet her daddy and that right there literally tears me down so bad .. Marcus Ragland i miss you so much man.. I just don’t understand..”
