HIGHWAY HORROR

Alligator Blamed in Freak Accident That Killed Deputy’s Daughter

The 20-year-old was thrown from the truck as it flipped, and a hit-and-run driver struck her.

A wandering alligator was the cause of a horrific late-night car crash that killed a Florida deputy’s daughter—hours before she was scheduled to be sworn in as a law enforcement official. After a Mercedes hit an alligator on I-95 in Titusville, Florida, Cassi Taylor, 20, tried desperately not to plow into the crash, overturning her Toyota Tacoma in the process. She was thrown from the truck as it flipped, and a hit-and-run driver struck her while she lay on the road. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators confirmed she had not been wearing a seatbelt. Taylor had worked at her father’s Indian River County sheriff’s office as a civilian corrections assistant for a little over a month before she was killed. “We are saddened to share the news of the death of one of our newest team members,” the sheriff’s office said on Tuesday. The alligator was also killed in the tragedy. The Mercedes driver was not injured, and officials are still searching for the driver who fled the scene.