![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SR-60-and-Tiger-Lake-Rd-12-12-25.webp?resize=768%2C516&ssl=1\")
Deputies said Connor Houston Strickland, 21, of Fort Pierce, and his family were traveling westbound in a Toyota Camry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For reasons not yet known, Strickland lost control of the vehicle and it rolled into a ditch on the south side of State Road 60, according to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials said Strickland and his girlfriend, Alexandria Janae McConnell, 26, of Auburndale, were not wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their 2-year-old son was secured in a child seat. First responders said they found the child still secured in the back seat when they arrived at the crash site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A dog was also found in the car and taken to Polk County Animal Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deputies said Strickland died at the scene. McConnell and her child were taken to two different hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both sides of State Road 60 were closed while first responders were on scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities said they determined the Toyota was traveling at 74 mph in a 60 mph zone seconds before the crash. The investigation remained ongoing on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A driver is dead, and a 2-year-old boy and his mother are in the hospital following a single-car crash east of Lake Wales on Friday, officials said. The crash happened… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL1NSLTYwLWFuZC1UaWdlci1MYWtlLVJkLTEyLTEyLTI1LndlYnA_Zml0PTc2OCUyQzUxNiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkRyaXZlciBraWxsZWQsIDIteWVhci1vbGQgYW5kIGhpcyBtb3RoZXIgaW4gaG9zcGl0YWwgYWZ0ZXIgY2FyIHJvbGxzIGludG8gZGl0Y2giLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.R4eGLeMCyjRPG-LYq1XnAazhBnKxXw8dQ9iGuVbPpCsMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59878,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SR-60-and-Tiger-Lake-Rd-12-12-25.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[12841,12840],"class_list":["post-59877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-2-year-old-and-his-mother-in-hospital-after-car-rolls-into-ditch","tag-driver-killed"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59881,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59877\/revisions\/59881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}