Driver dies after car crashes into tree by Midlands road, SC Highway Patrol says
One person was killed following a Sunday morning crash near a Midlands-area road, according to South Carolina Highway Patrol.
The single-vehicle collision happened at about 5:15 a.m. in Clarendon County, Sgt. Sonny Collins said.
A 2013 Ford Taurus was heading north on Plowden Mill Road when the car ran off the road and into the woods, where it hit a tree, according to Collins. That’s in Alcolu, near Interstate 95, about 55 miles east of Columbia.
The driver was the only person in the car and was killed, Collins said. Authorities have not said whether the driver died at the scene or at an area hospital.
The driver was not wearing a seat belt, according to Collins.
The Clarendon County Coroner’s Office is expected to publicly identify the driver after notifying the next of kin.
No other injuries were reported, according to the Highway Patrol, which is still investigating and has not released details on what caused the car to veer off the road.
Through Friday afternoon, 188 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2021, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Of those, 128 of the victims had access to seat belts, but 65 were not wearing them, DPS reported.
There have been at least three people killed in Clarendon County crashes in 2021, and seat belts were not used in two of the deadly collisions, DPS reported.
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