After pedestrian death, can Gervais bridge handle coming riverfront foot traffic?
After 24-year-old Michael Derrick was killed while walking on the Gervais Street Bridge three weeks ago, leaders and pedestrian advocates say concerns about the bridge’s safety can’t be pushed away.
Derrick died after he was hit by an SUV, driven by a drunk driver, and thrown off the bridge while walking on the bridge’s sidewalk May 31, Columbia police said. The driver, William Joseph Livingston, was charged with felony DUI resulting in death.
The recent death has elevated long-standing criticisms of the narrow, nearly century-old bridge, which drivers and pedestrians know can be unforgivingly tight.
“It’s only going to happen again,” said Regan Freeman, executive director of Palmetto Walk Bike, a statewide nonprofit that advocates for safer streets in South Carolina. “People are going to die again, full stop.”
Amplifying concerns about the bridge’s safety is its inevitable role in Columbia’s future riverfront trail system. The city is actively developing a new park and greenway on the Congaree riverfront, and the Gervais Street Bridge will be a vital junction between that park and the already-popular West Columbia and Cayce riverwalks.
Leaders say they need to find a way to build and pay for a pathway across the river that better protects the public who will use the continuous trail system that has been promised for so long.
With the city’s new greenway expected to open in coming years, safety advocates say the question must be answered now.
A future riverfront nexus
The Gervais Street Bridge is already a connection between downtown Columbia and West Columbia, but as recreation projects meant to bring more people to, and across, the river take off, leaders worry it could become a choke point.
“It’s undeniable, the time is now,” to start planning new safety measures, said Columbia Councilman Will Brennan, noting Columbia’s new greenway could be welcoming visitors in two to two-and-a-half years.
“Just imagine, 200, 300 people, kids on bikes, that’s going to be a pretty big issue,” Brennan said.
Columbia is in the process of developing a “world-class” riverfront park just south of the bridge, including a new greenway on Columbia’s side of the river. The park itself is being planned by a design firm that has touched some of the nation’s largest attractions, and when finished it is expected to be a major regional draw.
When the new park’s greenway is finished, there will be 27 miles of continuous trails along Columbia’s riverfronts, city plans promise.
The certain increase in activity makes addressing the bridge’s deficits a critical conversation, said Regan Freeman.
“The pedestrian amount of traffic with these parks, it’s only going to increase,” said Freeman. “Because it just makes natural sense when you’ve got a greenway on each side, that people want to do the whole damn thing.”
The Gervais bridge is not Columbia’s only bridge with pedestrian problems, Freeman said, but the new park will make it an even more central passage, increasing the need for better safety measures.
There were 12 crashes on the bridge between January 2024 and December 2025, The State previously reported. In comparison, there were 16 crashes on the Blossom Street and six on the Jarvis Klapman bridges in that time.
Brennan said he and other local leaders, including state Rep. Seth Rose, are in talks with the S.C. Department of Transportation about getting a feasibility study done for possible safety projects.
Building a plan
The Gervais Bridge opened to traffic nearly 100 years ago, after being rebuilt and reinforced from a previous iteration. It’s protected on the National Register of Historic Places, and is recreated in photos and paintings on walls across Columbia.
But the beloved Columbia landmark has flaws. Its four lanes of traffic are several feet more narrow than modern standards call for, and it can feel daunting to use the bridge’s existing sidewalk.
Leaders agreed that finding a way to protect pedestrians who need to cross the bridge must happen soon.
Brennan said one idea is to create a dedicated pedestrian-and-bicycle crossing separate from but connected to the bridge.
Rose and Brennan are both among a group of local leaders who have asked the S.C. Department of Transportation to begin a feasibility study on what a safety project could include and how much the work could cost.
Leaders said they will look for local, state and federal dollars to help pay for the project.
“I think this is an important enough project that we can find a way to make it happen,” Rose said.
He added that Columbia should be able to get federal dollars to help pay for the project, saying Republican legislators should leverage their relationships with President Donald Trump to steer that money here.
