New Year cel­e­bra­tions have been put on hold for a La Hor­quet­ta fam­i­ly now mourn­ing the loss of one of their rel­a­tives af­ter a car crash in Ari­ma on Sat­ur­day night.  So in­tense was the crash that a tree, which the car ran in­to was up­root­ed from its spot.

Po­lice said Kendell Cox, 34, was dri­ving his sil­ver Nis­san Wingroad near Food Bas­ket, O’Meara, along the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way, around 9.15 pm when he re­port­ed­ly over­took sev­er­al ve­hi­cles on the left lane.

Cox is said to have dri­ven on a grassy area when he lost con­trol and drift­ed on­to the mid­dle of the road, hit­ting the me­di­an on the fast lane and then crash­ing in­to a tree, up­root­ing it.

Oth­er dri­vers saw the ac­ci­dent and called the Fire Ser­vice, who vis­it­ed the scene and used the Jaws of Life to re­move Cox.

A dis­trict med­ical of­fi­cer vis­it­ed the scene and de­clared Cox dead.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the fam­i­ly’s home yes­ter­day, Cox’s moth­er Jean Williams said her son worked as a hos­pi­tal at­ten­dant with the Ch­agua­nas Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty and was al­ready dressed for work at the time of the ac­ci­dent. 

She not­ed that in his haste to leave home, she con­tin­ued to re­mem­ber his last words to her. 

“He had his two sons here for the week­end so I asked him if he was sure he had to go to work tonight and he said, ‘Yes, mom.’

“Ap­par­ent­ly as it was the end of 2024, he had to sign off cer­tain things be­cause af­ter that he would be on hol­i­days and would go back out to work for the new year.

“He kept telling me he have to go, he have to go, so that record­ing in my head and I thought to my­self, Kendell said he had to go, and when peo­ple say things, some­times, you don’t in­ter­pret it in the way it’s meant.”

Williams said she heard about her son’s ac­ci­dent from a rel­a­tive who lived abroad whom Cox was speak­ing to while dri­ving. 

She said the rel­a­tive called her and told her to get to the O’Meara por­tion of the high­way im­me­di­ate­ly. 

Re­fer­ring to an iron­ing board Cox gift­ed her for Christ­mas, Williams said her son cared about her great­ly and she al­ready felt the loss of his pass­ing.

Williams was sur­round­ed by im­me­di­ate and ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly yes­ter­day. She said she was deeply shak­en fol­low­ing Cox’s death but thanked them and the strength of God for over­com­ing the grief. 

Asked what ad­vice she had for dri­vers who may ven­ture out on the road dur­ing the up­com­ing New Year fes­tiv­i­ties, Williams urged them to be cau­tious and mind­ful of oth­ers around. 

“I think most times they should take the nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions and take steps in life.

“Live for the New Year, it’s just good to be safe than sor­ry.”

Mean­while, in To­ba­go a pedes­tri­an was killed while cross­ing the road­way.

Po­lice said the in­ci­dent took place at Sher­win Road, Bon Ac­cord, late Sat­ur­day night.