A man who took a picture of a ‘Welcome to Florida’ sign while driving allegedly caused a crash that killed his three nephews and niece.
Marvin Redondo-Funes, 25, reportedly slowed down to photograph the sign at the Georgia-Florida border while driving from New York with his girlfriend and the four kids.
Redondo-Funes allegedly went down to 1 to 2 mph in order to snap a clear picture of the state line and a car behind him did not see the sudden slow-down and rear-ended him at full speed, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The four children were sitting in the backseat of the vehicle around 4am on July 1, 2023, despite the rear being designed to only accommodate three people. Three of them were not wearing seatbelts, stated a criminal complaint obtained by the New York Post.
Three of the children died at the scene and the fourth was transported to a hospital and succumbed to the injuries two days later.
Redondo-Funes, his girlfriend and the driver that hit their vehicle did not suffer any serious injuries.
‘A Picture is Never Worth a Human Life,’ wrote the highway patrol in Jacksonville on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
Redondo-Funes was arrested and extradited on November 2 from New York and booked into the Nassau County Jail with a $270,000 bond.
He has been charged with four counts of aggravated manslaughter of a child and driving with a suspended or revoked license causing great bodily injury, according to the highway patrol.
‘Thank you to the FHP Traffic Homicide Unit and other agencies for getting this dangerous criminal off the streets,’ wrote the highway patrol.
‘Way to go!’
A GoFundMe page for funeral costs for two of the boys and the girl, who were siblings, stated that they were aged 10, 12 and 14.
The page had raised more than $20,000 as of Monday evening.
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