One person killed, others hospitalized following crash in Columbia, cops say
One person was killed and two others were hospitalized after a Sunday evening crash on a Columbia road, the South Carolina Highway Patrol said.
The two-vehicle collision happened at about 5 p.m. at the intersection of Bluff Road and Southern Drive, Lance Cpl. Tyler Tidwell said. That’s near the junction with Interstate 77, and less than two miles from Williams-Brice Stadium.
A 2001 Ford Taurus was heading east on Bluff Road when it attempted to make a left turn onto Southern Drive and was hit on the right-front side by a 1999 Lexus RX3 that was traveling west on Bluff, according to Tidwell.
The drivers of both cars were taken to an area Prisma Health hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Tidwell said. Further information on their conditions was not available.
A passenger in the Ford was killed in the wreck, according to Tidwell.
The Richland County Coroner’s Office will publicly identify the person after performing an autopsy and notifying the next of kin.
None of the three was wearing a seat belt, Tidwell said.
Information on possible criminal charges was not available, but the collision is being investigated by Highway Patrol and the coroner’s office.
Through Friday afternoon, 908 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2020, according to the Department of Public Safety. Of those, 618 of the victims had access to seat belts, but 333 were not wearing them, DPS reported.
There have been at least 45 people killed in Richland County crashes in 2020, and seat belts were not used in at least 32 of the deaths, DPS data shows.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 8:26 AM.
