Woman charged in Seminole County crash that killed one man, injured three

Amanda Babcock, 37, of Geneva, was taken into custody Thursday, nearly a year after a deadly crash on State Road 46 near Mullet Lake Park Road that killed Edward Rathman and injured three other people.

Investigators say Babcock was driving a 2018 Ram 2500 pickup truck recklessly shortly before 9:15 a.m. on June 7, 2025, when the truck moved between vehicles, passed multiple cars at once and briefly entered the oncoming lane while trying to get around a 2024 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. The pickup then swerved back, struck the van and later collided head-on with a 2020 Cadillac XT6 SUV. After the impact, the truck caught fire.

Court records and a Florida Highway Patrol report cited by local outlets show Rathman, a passenger in the SUV, died in the crash. Three other people were injured.

Babcock was charged with vehicular homicide, reckless driving causing serious injury and two counts of reckless driving with damage to a person. The case remained under investigation by Florida Highway Patrol until the arrest, underscoring how long crash reconstruction can take when investigators are sorting out speed, lane position and the sequence of impacts on a rural stretch of road that moves fast and leaves little margin for error.

At a first appearance hearing, a judge ordered Babcock to wear a GPS monitor and barred her from contacting three people identified in court records. She later posted bond, and her arraignment is scheduled for July 14, 2026.

The delay leaves Rathman’s family and the injured survivors with a starkly familiar reality in serious traffic cases: the evidence can take months to lock down, but the loss on the road is immediate and permanent. On State Road 46, where traffic routinely mixes with high-speed passing maneuvers between Seminole County and eastern Lake County, the case now stands as a warning about how quickly one reckless decision can turn a morning drive into a fatal crash.