Woman killed while running with female fitness group near Lexington High School
A Lexington woman and mother of three was hit and killed while running with her fitness group Tuesday morning.
The deadly incident happened on U.S. 1 at Charter Road near Lexington High School, according to Lance Cpl. David Jones of the S.C. Highway Patrol.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher identified the victim as 36-year-old Dianne Sullivan Wells of Lexington.
Wells was crossing the roadway when she was hit. She died at the scene from her injuries, according to Fisher. The driver of the vehicle stopped to render aid.
Wells was running with a group called Females in Action — or FiA, according to a tweet posted by FiA Lexington around 11 a.m.
She was known in the group as “Digits” and recently completed the Rock-n-Roll Marathon in Savannah.
“Like all of our runners, Dianne was very safety conscious, always wearing safety lights and crossing at sidewalks and lights,” the post reads. “This morning’s route was a familiar one to Dianne and the group she was running with.”
Jones said Wells was the only person in the roadway at the time of the incident, and that she was trying to cross the road at the intersection of Augusta Highway and Charter Road.
Wells left behind a husband and three children, according to a fund-raising campaign posted to the FiA Lexington Facebook page.
“The world lost this amazing person that brought so much happiness and light to everyone that knew her,” the post reads. “The world is a better place because of her. She leaves behind a family that carries the same positive and bright aspect of life.”
The campaign was more than halfway to its $10,000 goal as of 1 p.m. Tuesday.
F3 Lexington — a local chapter of the national F3 organization, which is the male equivalent of FiA — will hold a “Runvergence” in Wells’ honor Wednesday morning. It starts at 5 a.m. at River Bluff High School.
The F3 Lexington group mourned the loss of one of their own under similar circumstances last year. Lexington resident John Flanagan died after being hit by a car during an early-morning run with the group on Sunset Boulevard in June 2017.
Wells was the fourth person killed on Lexington County roadways in less than 24 hours.
Two people died in a wrong-way crash at I-26 and I-77 Monday, and a 70-year-old motorcyclist died in a head-on collision on Platt Springs Road on Sunday.
Lexington County is near the top of the state in traffic deaths so far this year and has seen the largest spike in traffic deaths of all S.C. counties compared to last year.
This story was originally published December 18, 2018 at 7:59 AM.