Single-Vehicle Collision Leads To Traffic Buildup and Another Crash
Its nothing new to Charleston car accident lawyers, and other area residents, that a single auto collision can lead to another and cause serious backups for travelers. These backups create a sea of frustrated drivers and can be extremely dangerous not long after the initial accident, just as authorities are responding to the scene. This is exactly what happened last week on Interstate 26, not far from Summerville.
The first wreck happened around 9 a.m. when a minivan heading westbound near mile marker 196 lost control of the vehicle, went into the median, and hit a tree. The 44-year-old driver from Summerville was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, but was pronounced dead at the scene by the Berkeley County Coroner's Office.
About twenty minutes after this single-vehicle crash, and as westbound traffic began backing up, a second serious auto accident took place, ultimately involving a total of five vehicles. One of those vehicles was a tractor trailer that began this chain reaction by side swiping three stopped vehicles near mile marker 197, then ran into the median strip hitting several trees. One of the trees struck by the tractor-trailer fell on top of a sport utility vehicle that was also stopped in traffic on I-26.
Of the five vehicles involved in this second crash, five people were taken to local hospitals for treatment to their injuries. The instigator of the tractor trailer accident was a 72-year-old man from Wadmalaw Island. He was cited for driving too fast for the highly congested conditions. Following the second accident traffic was detoured for more than four hours.
The fatal, single-vehicle wreck happened two miles outside what has been established as a "death zone," after the South Carolina Highway Patrol started a crackdown in August of the area between Exit 194 and Interstate 95 interchange. The crackdown and subsequent designation of the area as a "death zone" came after a Post and Courier Watchdog analysis showed that this particular stretch of I-26 had a fatality rate three times higher than other portions of the interstate.
