Lawnmower drives off cliff, killing rider, South Carolina coroner says
A former high-ranking emergency official in South Carolina was killed Tuesday when the lawnmower he was riding went off a cliff, according to the Pickens County Coroner’s Office.
Richard Crowe, a 68-year-old Pickens resident, is the driver who died in the single-vehicle collision, Coroner Andrew Wilson said Wednesday in a news release.
Crowe was on the lawnmower when it went over a 15- to 20-foot cliff, according to the release.
Information about when the crash happened was not available, but it was about 9:05 p.m. when the coroner’s office responded to the 1000 block of Belle Shoals Road, according to the release.
No other injuries were reported.
Information about what caused the lawnmower to crash over the cliff’s edge was not available, but the wreck is being investigated by the coroner’s office and Pickens County Sheriff’s Office. An autopsy has been ordered to help determine both the cause and manner of death, the coroner’s office said.
In 2024, Crowe retired from Pickens County as the Director of E-911, according to the release.
“Richard is a well-known and loved individual in this community,” Wilson said in the release. “He has always been known as a dear friend to many and a public servant at heart.”
Lawnmower crashes
This is at least the second deadly crash this month involving a lawnmower in Pickens County, and the third this year in South Carolina.
On June 13, a 69-year-old Easley resident was riding a lawnmower in the 800 block of Jim Hunt Road in Easley, according to the coroner’s office. The lawnmower left a private driveway and entered the road, where it was hit by a Hyundai SUV that was driving south on Jim Hunt Road, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
The lawnmower rider was ejected and thrown into the road, before being taken to an area hospital where he died, the coroner’s office said.
In January, a 67-year-old Pennsylvania resident was riding a lawnmower in the 1200 block of Old Highway 6 in Berkeley County when it was hit by a 2013 Honda Civic that was driving west on the road, according to officials. The lawnmower rider died at the scene from injures he suffered in the wreck, said the Berkeley County Coroner’s Office.
South Carolina crashes
Through Sunday, 390 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 10 people have died in Pickens County crashes this year, and 16 people died in wrecks there in 2025, according to DPS data.
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