Motorcycle smashes into car after rider is ejected and killed, SC Highway Patrol says
A motorcycle rider was killed Saturday night in the first of two crashes involving the Suzuki, the South Carolina Highway Patrol said.
The consecutive collisions happened at about 8:10 p.m. in Aiken County, according to Master Trooper David Jones.
Ronald M. Maxey, a 63-year-old Waynesboro, Georgia resident, died from blunt force injuries, Aiken County Coroner Darryl Ables said Sunday.
The 2004 Suzuki was driving south on S.C. 421 and was turning onto S.C. 125, Jones said. That’s in the Beech Island area, near the Savannah River and the South Carolina-Georgia state line.
As it was making the turn, the motorcycle spilled into the road and the rider was ejected, according to Jones. The motorcycle was traveling at a high rate of speed, Ables said.
Although the motorcycle had no driver, it continued forward and crossed into oncoming traffic where it hit a 2015 Kia Soul, Jones said.
Maxey died at the scene, according to Jones. There was no word if he wore a helmet.
Jones said the Kia driver was not hurt, and no other injuries were reported.
Information about what caused the motorcycle to originally crash was not available, but the incident remains under investigation by the Highway Patrol and coroner’s office.
Toxicology tests are pending, Ables said.
Through Thursday, 428 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2022, including 57 motorcycle riders, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
At least eight people have been killed in Aiken County crashes in 2022, and this is the second that involved a motorcycle, DPS reported.
In 2021, 159 motorcycle riders were among the 1,194 people who had died on South Carolina roads, according to DPS. Five of last year’s 36 deadly crashes in Aiken County involved a motorcycle, DPS data shows.
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This story was originally published June 12, 2022 at 9:30 AM.
