Florida community mourning loss of 18-year-old pageant queen to car crash

Kadance Fredericksen, Miss Okaloosa County Teen USA 2024 winner and Miss Florida Teen USA 2024 delegate, died in a car accident in Florida, official sources said E! News. She was 18.

On Feb. 17, the teenager's sedan hit a tractor-trailer head-on in Santa Rosa County, Fla., after moving into the eastbound lane from the westbound lane on Florida State Road 4 for "unknown reasons," as PEOPLE reported.

Kadance died on the scene. The 56-year-old driver of the other vehicle was minorly injured, according to a Florida Highway Patrol crash report obtained by E! News.

After her passing, Kadance's family told local news that she had been accepted into nine universities and aimed to become a veterinarian.

More Expressions of Loss

They continued by saying that she was "absolutely perfect," and that the girl at Baker High School had "the whole world at the palm of her hands."

Also expressing their condolences, the Miss Florida USA expressed their sorrow at the unexpected death of the high school student.

“It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we share the passing of one of our beloved delegates, Kadance Fredericksen,” the organization wrote on Instagram Feb. 18.

“Our pageant community has lost a beautiful soul—one who was a true light in this world. She was ambitious, driven, kind, and a leader among her pageant sisters.”

Her Life's Work

Kadance's dedication to charitable work was concurrent with her pageant career and even founded her own nonprofit organization, "Kada's Promise," in 2017. She gathered and donated comfort objects to children in challenging living situations, drawing on her personal experience of growing up in a "abusive" household.

“The only thing that made me feel safe was a single teddy bear that I received as a gift,” Kada wrote in her organization’s mission statement.

“I carried him with me from house to house, couch to couch and clutched him tightly in the scariest times. It is from these memories that Kada's Promise was born.”

The late pagent contestent said on her nonprofit’s website, “Kada’s Promise is probably my greatest accomplishment to date. It is my life’s story.”