SC county employee dies in collision with SUV driven by a deputy responding to a call

A longtime Spartanburg County employee died Wednesday when his car was hit by an SUV driven by a sheriff’s deputy responding to a call.

Coroner Rusty Clevenger identified the man as 63-year-old Charles Ricky Graham of Pauline, who worked for Spartanburg County’s Roads and Bridges Department for nearly 20 years.

Deputy Robert Taylor, 36, of Spartanburg was taken to a local hospital. His condition was not available Thursday morning.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Lt. Kevin Bobo told WYFF television station Taylor was not pursuing a vehicle when the collision occurred but was responding to a call.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol said a pickup truck driven by Graham was entering Pine Street from Brown Road at 1:20 p.m. The Sheriff’s Office SUV hit the truck on the driver’s side.

Graham died at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, Clevenger said. His office was called to the hospital around 2:15 p.m.

7NEWS reported John Scott saw the collision and its aftermath.

“They got the one gentleman out of the white truck, and they were trying to get the gentleman out of the black SUV and it started catching fire, the white one did,” Scott told the television station.

Libba McCullough, who has lived nearby since the late 1980s, told the television station, “There’s a blind hill coming from Spartanburg to Pacolet and if you aren’t ready to move, you don’t know who’s coming over the road.”

“Something needs to be done. This was a tragedy, but it’s not the first and it won’t be the last. Unless they do something,” she told 7News.

This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 12:20 PM.