Motorcycle rider killed in fiery crash on Midlands road, SC Highway Patrol says
A 30-year-old South Carolina man was killed Sunday night in a motorcycle crash on a Midlands highway, the Sumter County Coroner’s Office said.
Eric Blue died at the scene of the single-vehicle collision that happened at about 5:30 p.m., Coroner Robbie Baker said in a news release.
The Florence resident was thrown from the 2002 Suzuki motorcycle he was riding on U.S. 76 (aka Broad Street), according to Lance Cpl. Matt Southern of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
The crash occurred in the 3300 block of Broad Street, by the intersection with Carter Road, Southern said. That’s in an area where several industrial businesses are located, about seven miles from downtown Sumter.
Blue was heading west when he ran off the left side of the road and into the median, Southern said.
As the bike spilled to the ground Blue was ejected and hit a tree, and the Suzuki caught fire, according to Southern.
Blue was not wearing a helmet, Baker said. The coroner called the crash an accident.
An autopsy has been scheduled for Tuesday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Information on what caused the collision was not available, but it remains under investigation by the coroner’s office and Highway Patrol.
Prior to this wreck, 18 motorcycle riders have been killed on South Carolina roads in 2020, according to the Department of Public Safety. In those collisions 14 crash victims were not wearing a helmet, DPS reported.
