Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Woman dies after vehicle hits school
This is the second time in less than two months the east wall of the school gym has been hit by a vehicle.
SILOAM SPRINGS — One of the three people involved in the vehicle crash at Siloam Springs Intermediate School on Feb. 28 has died.
Natalia Wiggins, 25, died on Tuesday, according to Capt. Derek Spicer of the Police Department. She was a resident of Bella Vista, according to the preliminary fatal accident report from the Arkansas Department of Public Safety.
The crash occurred when a 1999 Honda Accord driven by Tyler Matthews, 32, was traveling west on West Cheri Whitlock Parkway, and left the roadway, crossed the lawn and struck the east side of the intermediate school gym, Spicer said. He estimated the vehicle was speeding at 70 to 80 miles per hour. Matthews was also a resident of Bella Vista, the preliminary report states.
Wiggins was riding in the front seat of the car and Desa Watkins, 18, was also a passenger of the vehicle, Spicer said. Watkins was from Garfield, the report states.
Two patients were transported from the scene of the accident by ambulance and one was transported by air ambulance, Fire Chief Jeremey Criner said. Fire department personnel had to extract the driver from the car, but he was not the person transported by air ambulance, said Battalion Chief Adam Rusk.
This is the second time in less than two months the east wall of the school gym has been hit by a vehicle.
A pickup truck driven by Ezequiel Gomez, 24, hit the school during the early hours of Jan. 5, Spicer said. It was also traveling westbound on West Cheri Whitlock Parkway when it lost control, jumped the curb on the south side of the road, then came back across the north side of the road and went through the ditch before hitting the wall of the building.
The Honda appeared to hit the building about 40 feet north of where the first vehicle hit the gym in January, according to Superintendent Jody Wiggins, who is no relation to passenger Natalia Wiggins. This time the car didn’t hit a ditch or fire hydrant to slow them down and appeared to do a lot more damage, he said.
Engineers inspected the building on Monday and again on Tuesday and found the building to be structurally sound, according to Assistant Superintendent Shane Patrick. Workers built a construction wall along the interior of the east side of the school gym last week to keep students away from the work area and students are expected to return to the school gym on Monday, he said. The facility is used for physical education and socially distanced band classes, he said.
“We have been very careful to make sure the building is safe for students and staff,” Patrick said. “We want to get them back in there as soon as possible, but safety is the first priority.”