4 killed in 5 days on Lexington County roadways ahead of busy holiday weekend

Four people have been killed in five days on Lexington County roadways, a deadly start to the Thanksgiving holiday travel period during which some 600,000 South Carolinians are expected to take to the roads.

A 22-year-old man was killed Thursday in a four-car crash on U.S. 1 near Interstate 20. On Sunday, a pedestrian was hit and killed in West Columbia. A tractor-trailer driver was killed in a fiery crash that shut down I-20 for hours Tuesday morning. And Tuesday afternoon, a pedestrian was killed on U.S. 1 in Lexington.

The deaths came as people are starting to hit the roads for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is the busiest holiday of the year for traveling and during which experts predict a record number of travelers. AAA of the Carolinas estimated more than 700,000 South Carolinians will travel this holiday, with more than 600,000 traveling by car.

“We’re going into this holiday weekend with a bad start,” Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said.

For Fisher and her deputies, the already solemn task of notifying a family of their loved one’s death is made even more difficult right before a holiday like Thanksgiving.

“Every year that holiday is going to bring back sad memories for them,” Fisher said. “It’s very difficult to make those notifications, knowing that this is something they’re going to remember on this holiday forever.”

Lexington County has had some of the deadliest roadways in South Carolina this year and at one point led the state in traffic deaths. Before this week’s deadly collisions, 58 people had been killed on roadways in the county compared to 39 at the same time last year, according to the S.C. Department of Public Safety. Lexington County is currently third in the state behind Spartanburg County, which has 62 deaths, and Greenville County, which has 59.

The 11-mile stretch of I-20 that is currently under construction from just west of Longs Pond Road to just west of U.S. 378, its lanes narrowed by concrete barriers on either side, has proven particularly deadly this year.

“We’ve had three, maybe four deaths on that section of interstate,” Fisher said. “That’s becoming a deadly section of roadway right there for Lexington. A lot of it has to do with the construction of that road. (Drivers) aren’t adhering to the lower speed limits.”

During the Thanksgiving travel period last year, 12 people died on roadways in the Palmetto State, according to Lance Cpl. David Jones of the S.C. Highway Patrol. Troopers are ramping up patrols and partnering with local law enforcement again this year during the holiday weekend, keeping an eye out particularly for drunken driving and distracted driving.

Jones and Fisher say the same same factors — no seat belt, driving impaired, distracted driving and speed — are typically involved in deadly crashes.

“Yeah, it would be great if we had more highway patrolmen on the road,” Fisher said. “But the responsibility of all those things falls on the driver.”

People often argue that the decision to drive impaired or not wear a seat belt only affects them, Jones said. But statistics show that a portion of the people killed on S.C. roadways last year still would be alive if they called a taxi or an Uber. Half would likely still be alive if they wore a seat belt, he said.

“As troopers, when we knock on the door and we’re greeted by a weeping loved one, we go back the next night and there’s a whole house full of people that poor decision affected,” he said. “We want to stop the knock on the door. I can promise you, it never gets any easier.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2018 at 11:33 AM.