20-year-old and her mother killed on Midlands stretch of interstate, SC cops say
A mother and her daughter were killed Monday in a Midlands-area car crash that left two more people hospitalized, the South Carolina Highway Patrol said.
The single-vehicle collision happened at about 2:30 p.m. on Interstate 95, Cpl. Sonny Collins said.
Dayremis Rios was driving a 2019 Chrysler 300 south on I-95 when she ran off the left left side of the highway close to mile marker 121, according to Collins. That is near the junction with U.S. 521 at Exit 122, headed toward Sumter and Manning, and about 60 miles east of Columbia.
The car crossed the median and smashed into a tree, Highway Patrol reported.
The 20-year-old and her 61-year-old mother Digna Rios both died at the scene, Clarendon County Coroner Bucky Mock said. Both women were from Miami, Florida.
Along with the mother and daughter, the two other passengers in the Chrysler were wearing seat belts, according to Collins.
The other passengers were taken to an area hospital, Collins said.
Information on their conditions was not available.
Digna was sitting on the left-rear side of the car, behind her daughter, and both suffered head trauma and multiple blunt force trauma, Mock said.
There is no word if the weather affected the collision, but it was raining and foggy in the Midlands at the time of the crash, according to timeanddate.com.
The wreck is being investigated by Highway Patrol, which reminds people traveling during the Christmas holiday week to take caution, whether it’s on a long road trip or a short drive to go shopping.
“Have a merry Christmas but stay safe!” the South Carolina Department of Public Safety tweeted.
To help make holiday travel go smoother, the South Carolina Department of Transportation “prohibited lane closures on interstate highways for non-emergency highway work during the Christmas holiday travel period,” which will end at 10 p.m. on Jan. 3.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published December 24, 2019 at 7:39 AM.
