Truck found day after flipping over in deadly crash by Midlands road, SC coroner says
The day after a Dodge Ram crashed by a Midlands road a passenger in the pickup truck died, the South Carolina Highway Patrol said.
The Saluda County Coroner’s Office said Kailey Blumel, a 20-year-old Hephzibah, Georgia resident, died at the scene.
The single-vehicle collision happened sometime between 10-11:45 p.m. Monday, according to Angie Rita, the chief investigator with the coroner’s office. But the pickup wasn’t discovered until about 10 a.m. Tuesday, Rita told The State.
A 22-year-old man from Evans, Georgia was driving the 1996 pickup east on High Tower Road in Saluda County, said Master Trooper Brandon Bolt of the Highway Patrol. Near the intersection with Berryland Road the pickup ran off the right side of the road, according to Bolt.
The driver overcorrected and the pickup continued to swerve back and forth, on and off both sides of the road, before ultimately running off the left side and crashing into a fence, Bolt said.
The collision caused the pickup to flip over, according to Bolt.
After the pickup was found, the driver was taken to an area hospital, according to Rita. Further information on the driver’s condition was not available.
No other injuries were reported.
There was no word if either person in the pickup wore a seat belt, or if the driver will face criminal charges.
Information about why the pickup originally veered off the road was not available, but the crash remains under investigation by the Highway Patrol.
Through Monday, 399 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2022, according to the Department of Public Safety. Last year, 1,194 people died in crashes in South Carolina, DPS reported.
This is the first fatal collision in Saluda County in 2022, according to DPS. There were seven deaths there last year, DPS data shows.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 9:12 AM.
