Drunk driver blew through red light, killing man visiting from Illinois, SC coroner says
One man is dead and another is behind bars. Four other people were hospitalized after a drunk driver ignored a red light and caused a fatal crash early Saturday morning, the Charleston Police Department said in a news release.
The crash occurred just after 2:15 a.m., blocks away from Charleston’s waterfront, at the intersection of Meeting and Columbus streets, according to the news release.
A 2016 Mazda sedan was headed through the intersection when it was hit on the passenger side by a 2004 Ford pickup truck that had blown through a red light, police said in the news release. As a result of the collision, the Mazda smashed into a building at the corner of the intersection, per police.
There were four people in the Mazda, and the front seat passenger was killed in the crash and pronounced dead at the scene, according to the news release.
That passenger was identified by the Charleston County Coroner’s Office as William Kappel Jr., a 32-year-old visiting from Oaklawn, Illinois, WCSC reported.
The driver of the Mazda suffered “serious internal injuries” in the crash and is hospitalized in “serious condition,” police said in the news release. The other passengers in the Mazda “sustained non-life-threatening injuries,” according to police.
The occupants of the Ford were also taken to the Medical University of South Carolina with what police described as “non-life-threatening injuries” in the news release.
The driver of the Ford pickup truck identified as North Charleston resident Thomas C. Garris “was found to be impaired when officers arrived” at the hospital, according to the news release.
The 30-year-old was taken to the Al Cannon Detention Center where records show he was charged with felony driving under the influence resulting in death, felony driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury, and reckless homicide. His bond was set at $450,000 on the combined charges, jail records show.
This was Charleston’s first traffic fatality in 2019, police said in the news release.
