Aggressive action by woman killed in Sumter Co. wreck alleged

Sumter County authorities now believe that the woman who died in a crash early Tuesday morning was the aggressor in a confrontation on the road that started earlier between two acquaintances.

Teona Yolanda Tyler, 24, of Sumter was killed around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday morning when she was thrown from her vehicle which had left the road and struck a utility pole. The resulting vehicle fire alerted authorities to the accident and discovery of Tyler’s body.

New information about that morning on Dubose Siding Road suggests a more volatile situation which began earlier Monday night.

As deputies were responding to a vehicle-on-fire call, another call came in to 9-1-1 to report a collision, the sheriff’s department said in a news release. The unnamed caller was told to go home and a deputy would come by to take a report.

The caller told responding deputies that Tyler had threatened her earlier the night before and then had followed her when the caller tried to avoid another confrontation by getting in her car to leave.

Tyler pulled along side the caller’s car on Dubose Siding Road and slammed into the side of her car, prompting the side airbags to deploy and warning lights to flash, deputies were told.

She called 9-1-1 when she got to the intersection of Dubose Siding Road and Westbury Mill Road as soon as she was confident Tyler wasn’t still following her. She had no idea that Tyler’s car had run off the road and burst into flames, she said.

Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis said while he regret’s Tyler’s death, he’s glad no one else was hurt.

“It appears she [Tyler] drove on the wrong side of the road in order to pull up beside another vehicle,” he said.

A Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team from the South Carolina Highway Patrol has been requested by the sheriff’s department to “further confirm the evidence surrounding this tragic and avoidable event,” Dennis said.

Had she survived the accident, it’s possible Tyler could have faced numerous charges including “attempted murder, reckless driving, driving left of center, and possibly others,” said sheriff department spokesman Ken Bell.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Aggressive action by woman killed in Sumter Co. wreck alleged."