‘I don’t want to die': Campers recount how car plunged into Lake Talquin, killing one
Karl Etters
A small clutch of red flowers sits next to the Coe Landing boat ramp.
“Love you Lindsay. Love Cameron,” reads a note left along with them.
A few feet away, shards of glass litter the concrete now marred from a small car that careened into the chilly waters of Lake Talquin Sunday night killing 35-year-old Lindsay Beagles and leaving Christen Johnson, 56, in critical condition.
It’s the second time someone has died in as many years at the landing after driving into the water. Because the crash is still under investigation, the Leon County Sheriff's Office has released few details about what led to the crash, but people camping nearby described the moments after the 6 p.m. incident.
Isach McDaniel, his friend Pat Boone and his wife, had been camping at the landing for the past week. Their last night before they packed up for New Orleans ended with them watching as first responders tried to save two lives.
The trio did not see the crash but watched as the vehicle was winched out of the water and the two women were pulled from the car.
McDaniel, who was visiting from South Carolina, said a man who was unloading his boat at the ramp recounted how he watched the car speed toward and go into the water without hitting the brakes.
“He had to move out of the way. He knew there were people inside, of course, and it started sinking straight down,” McDaniel said. “The scariest thing he said was he took his boat over there because he didn’t know what was going on. He said he could hear them in there saying ‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.’”
The crash was a harrowing end to the trio’s stop in Tallahassee.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said McDaniel, who is from South Carolina.
Signage warning that the road ends in a boat ramp are clearly visible along the 1.5 mile road leading to Lake Talquin. Upon the final approach, there are rumble strips and a stop sign.
The site is the same place where three people drowned and one person was rescued in 2016 after their car accidentally drove off the boat landing.
In that case, the driver appeared unfamiliar with the area and did not realize that the road terminated into a boat landing.
In the days after the accident, county administrator Vince Long directed staff to inspect of all of the county’s boat landings to determine if additional precautions could be taken.
That prompted county commissioners to vote for and develop more clear "dead end" and "road ends in water" signage, speed bumps, lights and fencing at the county's 25 boat landings.
2016 story
Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.