A New Year’s Day tragedy on Alabama Highway 9 left three small children without their parents after Thomas D. Agan, 25, and Jasmine D. Agan, 26, were killed in a head-on crash about two miles north of Centre in Cherokee County around 5:45 p.m. on January 1. Authorities said Jasmine was driving a 2020 Chevrolet Traverse when it collided with a 2003 Ford Explorer driven by a 16-year-old; both adults were pronounced dead at the scene, and officials noted neither Thomas nor Jasmine was wearing a seat belt.

The teen driver was seriously injured and airlifted to a hospital, while investigators continue working to determine what caused the collision. As grief spread across their communities in Georgia and Alabama, family, friends, and coworkers focused on the three children the couple left behind—Jaxon, Ila Mae, and Kolsie—now being cared for by relatives. Thomas’s workplace organized a GoFundMe to support the children, describing him as “the backbone” of their shop and highlighting how quickly the couple’s loss became a practical crisis as well as an emotional one. The article also notes the sorrowful tone of early 2026 more broadly, including a separate Arizona helicopter crash near Superior that killed four people and is under federal investigation, underscoring how fast celebration can turn into mourning—and how communities often respond by rallying around those left to carry the aftermath.