Deadly weekend for SC travelers as 14 killed in car crashes, plus 2 in train wreck

It was a deadly weekend for people traveling in South Carolina.

In addition to the two people killed in Cayce when an Amtrak passenger train crashed into a stopped CSX freight train, another 14 people were killed in vehicle collisions on Palmetto State roads.

There were seven fatal collisions between Friday and Sunday. That included a deadly wreck that killed four people in Laurens County, three of them high school students, and another crash in Darlington County where five people died, including two unborn babies as well as a 14-year-old girl.

FRIDAY

There was one fatal crash in the Midlands. On Friday, Joshua Craig Weatherford, 29, of Columbia was killed after being ejected from a vehicle in a two-car crash on northbound I-77 in Columbia. Weatherford wasn’t wearing a seat belt and died of injuries sustained in the crash.

That was the second of three fatal collisions Friday. The first occurred in Pickens County, where 76-year-old Phillip Ray James of Liberty was killed. A 2007 Ford truck struck James’ vehicle on the side as he entered Steward Gin Road from a private driveway.

In Darlington County, five people, including a teenager and two unborn children, were killed in a a crash. According to Darlington County Coroner Todd Hardee, there were 11 people in the car at the time of the crash.

One of occupants was in labor and was being driven to an area hospital for the delivery of the child, the Darlington County Coroner’s Office said. The car was traveling east when it ran off the side of the road into a drainage ditch and overturned, ejecting all 11 occupants.

The driver was not wearing a seat belt and died on scene. Two others killed were also not wearing seat belts and were transported to an area hospital where they died. Those who were killed included Darlington’s Leonard Rouse, 52, and Nakisha Rouse, 14, Chikari Douglas-Rouse, 28, of Hartsville, and her unborn child and baby boy Douglas-Graham.

SUNDAY

Seven more people were killed Sunday. Three high school students were among four people killed when their pickup truck hit an oncoming car head-on in Laurens County. The teens were in a pickup truck that crossed the centerline and hit a car.

Coroner Nick Nichols identified the Union teens as 18-year-old Hunter Carter, 16-year-old Kirslyn Richardson and 15-year-old Charner Inabinet. None were wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the car, 54-year-old Bruce Blair of Laurens, was killed. Troopers say he was wearing a seat belt.

The first fatal of the crash was in Spartanburg County and involved 59-year-old George Martin Forman Jr., of Enoree. He was driving a pickup truck when his vehicle went off the right side of the road, struck a culvert and overturned. Forman was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Another fatal crash occurred in Florence County. Johnsonville’s Crystal Caroline Davis, 36, died in a single-vehicle crash. She was not wearing a seat belt.

The driver of an SUV died and two children passengers were injured in a York County crash with a tractor-trailer truck Sunday night outside Rock Hill. The unidentified 70-year-old man was wearing a seat belt, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 11:05 PM.