SC man dies in crash with tractor trailer on I-20, Lexington County coroner says
A South Carolina man was killed Friday in a crash on Interstate 20, according to the Lexington County Coroner’s Office.
Tyrese Antwan Thomas, a 26-year-old West Columbia resident, died in what Coroner Margaret Fisher called an accident.
At about 2 a.m., Thomas was involved in a two-vehicle collision on a section of I-20 that runs through Lexington County, said Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Thomas was driving a 2011 Volkswagen sedan west in the eastbound lanes of I-20, according to Ridgeway. At the 39 mile marker the car collided head-on with a 2007 Freightliner tractor trailer that was driving east, Ridgeway said.
Both drivers were taken to an area hospital where Thomas was pronounced dead from the injuries he suffered, according to Fisher.
The tractor trailer driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Fisher said. Further information on that driver’s condition was not available.
No other injuries were reported.
Fisher said Thomas was wearing a seat belt, but there was no word if the tractor trailer driver was wearing a safety restraint.
Information about why the Volkswagen was driving west in the eastbound lanes of I-20 was not available, but the crash continues to be investigated by the Highway Patrol and coroner’s office.
Through May 4, at least 270 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2025, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Last year, at least 948 people died in crashes in South Carolina, DPS reported.
At least 13 people have died in Lexington County crashes in 2025, according to DPS data. There were 50 deaths in the county in 2024, DPS reported.
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