2 young kids die in crash; woman arrested for letting teen daughter drive

A second child has died after a crash that saw their unlicensed older sibling behind the wheel. WINK News first told you about this crash on Saturday night.

Now, the mother of those children could face charges since she made her 14-year-old unlicensed daughter drive her van. The woman who was arrested was intoxicated when she asked her daughter to drive.

Her other children were also in the car at the time of the crash. The 8 and 10-year-old siblings were passengers. No one in the van was wearing a seatbelt when the crash happened.

The t-bone crash at SR-82 and Sunshine Blvd in Lehigh Acres has killed a 3 -year-old and a 4-year-old. Flor Del Carmen Ixcoy, 4, died on Saturday. Pilar Del Carmen Ixcoy, 3, died Sunday at the hospital.

Florida Highway Patrol told WINK News on Sunday that their mother, Joyce Cara Zamago, was intoxicated so she let her 14-year-old daughter act as her designated driver.

Dr. David Thomas is a mental health counselor licensed in Florida. “That is adult type responsibility,” said Dr. Thomas.

Dr. Thomas is also a former police officer. He says that counseling will now be crucial for that teen driver. “That’s a heavy burden. The other thing is my fault. ‘If I would have never made that turn, this would have never happened, and my siblings would still be here.’ So this is a huge guilt burden that this child is going to carry for quite some time,” Thomas said.

On Monday in court, via zoom, Zamago’s eldest son asked a judge for reduced bond. This was so she could help plan and attend the funerals of his two younger sisters. For now, the judge has set bond for Zamago, 44, at $100,000 for aggravated child abuse and letting an unlicensed minor drive.

“I will allow her to attend the funeral, but I want to make it clear that she is to have no contact with the children unless there is DCF supervision,” the judge said Monday.

“I know that the community itself needs to step up and give them some help where they can and help them. Because this is going to be a very difficult time … even dealing with the loss of the children and dealing with the mental health aspect, there’s a lot of work to be done here,” Dr. Thomas said.

Thomas does not believe the judge will be able to upgrade the charges to vehicular homicide or manslaughter, since Zamago was not the one driving at the time of the crash.