2 DOT workers killed, 1 hurt in hit and run; Augusta man held

Two S.C. Department of Transportation workers were killed and a third injured in a hit-and-run collision Monday in Aiken County.

The collision happened around 8:30 a.m. near S.C. 421 and Storm Branch Road, just east of Interstate 520 near the Georgia state line, according to Sgt. Bob Beres of the S.C. Highway Patrol.

Monday afternoon, Lonnie Dean Miller, 29, of Augusta, Ga., was charged with two counts of hit and run involving a death, and one count of hit and run involving an injury, Beres said.

A tan Pontiac Grand Prix was traveling north on S.C. 421 when the car veered off the right side of the road, striking three Department of Transportation workers, Beres said. The vehicle left the scene.

Tony Redmond, 54, and Robert Clark, 64, were working on the shoulder of S.C. 421 with a third employee when they were hit, the Department of Transportation said. Redmond and Clark died. The third employee suffered minor injuries.

Troopers located a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix matching the description of the car not far from the scene of the collision, Beres said.

The car was parked near a home on Star Bright Lane, a spokesman for the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies executed a search warrant at the home after no one answered the door.

Redmond had been with DOT since 1996, and Clark since 2012, officials said. The crew was conducting a ditch inspection when they were hit.

“While we mourn these losses, I would urge all South Carolinians to be cautious at all times while on the roads, and use extra care when approaching work zones,” Secretary of Transportation Christy Hall said while offering condolences to the families. “The men and women of SCDOT are dedicated public servants, and we want them all to return home each night to their families.”

There have been 35 incidents in modern times when DOT employees have been killed on the job, officials said. Since 2007, six DOT workers have lost their lives, three of them in 2015 and 2016.

One of those killed in 2015 was Timothy Gibson, who died while working during the historic flooding in October 2015. Gibson was working with a DOT crew near Garners Ferry Road in Columbia when his truck flipped and was swept away by floodwaters.

This story was originally published March 13, 2017 at 10:03 AM with the headline "2 DOT workers killed, 1 hurt in hit and run; Augusta man held."