The last seconds of Brenda Ross’s life before she died in a horrific crash that killed two people east of Columbia were caught on a cell phone.
“Mrs. Ross was on the phone talking and actually said something to the effect that ‘They are coming the wrong way’,” Richland County coroner Gary Watts said Monday.
“Then the person on the other end heard the impact,” Watts said.
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Besides Ross, 60, of Sumter, the driver of the other van, Xavion Perry, 52, of the Hopkins community, also died in the crash.
Both were killed on impact in the Sunday night incident and died of multiple trauma at the scene, Watts said.
Watts said Ross had been in Greenville visiting her daughter and was headed back to Sumter when the incident happened.
The crash Sunday evening happened about 7:30 p.m. between two vans near U.S. 378 and Blue Johnson Road in the Horrell Hill community.
Watts said Perry was apparently going the wrong way when his van collided with the van driven by Ross.
The coroner said he learned about the final seconds of Ross’s life because the person she was talking with realized something had happened and drove to the scene.
The S.C. Highway Patrol is investigating.
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