Dad taken into custody after Poinciana accident caused by teenage son results in 4 deaths, including 3 kids

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – A man has been taken into custody over a year after his teenage son caused a fatal collision by running a stop sign and crashing into an SUV at an intersection in Poinciana. The crash resulted in the tragic deaths of four individuals in the SUV, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Richard Ferguson, aged 68, has been charged with four counts of vehicular manslaughter related to the incident that occurred in 2023. Reports indicate that his 15-year-old son, who did not possess a learner’s permit and had three other 15-year-old boys as passengers, disregarded a stop sign and collided with the SUV at a high speed.

The collision occurred at approximately 7 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2023, at the junction of San Miguel Street and Laurel Avenue. Initially, it was a two-way stop, but additional signage was installed in the aftermath of the fatal accident. Tragically, the crash led to the fatalities of a 50-year-old woman and three children – a 1-year-old girl, 9-year-old boy, and an 11-year-old girl. Furthermore, a man sustained severe injuries and was hospitalized as a result of the crash.

According to the affidavit for Ferguson’s arrest warrant, he had allowed his son to drive the car. The document cites investigators’ interviews with the teens in recounting how Ferguson told them to buckle up and come right back after he moved another vehicle so the boy could exit the driveway.

Sabrina Hernandez, the mother of the three children killed in the crash and the daughter of the woman, said at a vigil shortly after the crash that while she forgave the teen, she still wanted him to be held accountable, as well as for something to be done about traffic offenders and a lack of traffic enforcement in the area.

“Are we not worth it in Poinciana? Do we count at all? What is the difference that you can go into another town and there’s cops everywhere?” she said. “(…) I’m not going to stop until I get justice for my family. Because the same way he went ahead and ate the stop sign and killed my family, he still got to wake up today and my family didn’t.”

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