Victim Identified in 441 Crash: Abby Bard

PBSO has identified the individuals involved in last night’s crash on US-441 south of Yamato Road. Abby Bard (63) was driving a Volkswagen Jetta, traveling northbound in the southbound lanes not far from her home in Boca Chase. She was pronounced dead at the scene by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

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Bard had a history of volunteering at the Tri-County Animal Rescue, as can be seen in the photo below from 2011.

On the dark side, Ms. Bard did have a 2012 arrest for DUI causing injury and served a term of probation as a result of that incident. The report from PBSO does not address toxicology so we can’t know yet if alcohol was a factor in this incident.
The other driver, Daniel Mixa (28, Lake Worth) was seriously injured and taken to Delray Medical Center.

Investigator Klepping of the Vehicle Homicide Unit described the accident as follows in his initial report:

… V1 [Bard] was traveling northbound in the second to the inside travel lane of southbound [441]. V2 [Mixa] was traveling southbound in the second to the inside travel lane … behind another vehicle. The vehicle in front of [Mixa] abruptly veered to the inside lane. [Mixa] was directly in the path of [Bard]. The front of V1 made contact with the front of V2 in a violent head-on collision. Both vehicles came to an immediate stop, rising off the ground and ultimately coming to rest at the point of collision. The operator of V1 was pronounced deceased on the scene by palm Beach County Fire Rescue. D2 was ultimately transported to Delray Medical Center in serious condition.
***** Next of Kin HAS been notified *****

Put another way, it appears that Mixa was behind another vehicle. That vehicle saw Bard coming and swerved to avoid her. Mixa had little or no time to react, and couldn’t see her coming earlier because the vehicle in front of him obscured his view.
Since publishing our story a family member of Bard contacted us and told us that they were not notified of the incident before the PBSO release.
Update from a reader:

I wanted to give you an update regarding your news story on the crash on 441 and New England. I was there and witnessed the entire accident. The gold car was speeding into the oncoming traffic dodging a few cars before he smacked into the young boy’s blue car head on. It was the person in the gold car that was dead on the scene. A cop was on the scene seconds after the crash occurred.

Regardless of the cause of the incident, Ms. Bard’s passing is a loss to her family and friends.