Driver run over by own vehicle during crash is identified by SC coroner
One person was killed Monday morning when run over by the vehicle they had been driving, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Jose Eduardo Sanchez-Franco, a 24-year-old Wagner resident, died in what Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher called an accident.
The single-vehicle collision happened at about 7:15 a.m. in Lexington County, said Master Trooper William Bennett of the Highway Patrol.
Sanchez-Franco was driving a 2002 Ford F-350 pickup truck that was pulling a trailer south on Wagner Highway, according to Bennett. That’s in the Leesville area, about 7 miles from Exit 39 on I-20.
Near the intersection with Rhoda Rish Road the pickup ran off the right side of Wagner Highway, where it crashed into a ditch, utility pole and fence, Bennett said.
Sanchez-Franco tried to exit the pickup before it stopped and was run over by the trailer before the truck crashed into a tree, according to officials.
Sanchez-Franco died at the scene, Bennett said.
Bennett said that a passenger in the pickup was not hurt, and no other injuries were reported.
There was no word if anyone involved in the wreck was wearing a seatbelt.
Information about what caused the pickup to veer off the road was not available, but the crash is being investigated by the Highway Patrol and coroner’s office.
Through Sunday, 119 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2026, according to the state Department of Public Safety. A minimum of 914 people were killed in collisions in South Carolina in 2025, DPS data shows.
At least 12 people have died in Lexington County crashes this year, and 40 people died in wrecks there in 2025, according to DPS data.
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This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 1:24 PM.
