32-year-old Hilton Head man killed in south-island crash, coroner says
A 32-year-old man has been identified as the victim in Monday morning’s fatal crash on south-end Hilton Head Island.
Cesar Camarillo Acosta, of Hilton Head, was pronounced dead following the single-vehicle collision just after midnight Monday on U.S. Highway 278 (Palmetto Bay Road) near the southern base of the Cross Island Parkway bridge, the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office said Tuesday morning.
Acosta was driving a 2007 Ford pickup truck west on the highway around 12:30 a.m. Monday when he ran off the road and struck a tree, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, whose troopers are investigating the collision.
Deputies arrived at the scene to find the Ford F-250 with “heavy damage” to the front and passenger sides, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident report. Police also noted multiple trees in the highway’s median had been knocked over, and crash debris was seen on both sides of the road.
Deputies shuttered the highway as SCHP troopers began working the collision, according to the incident report.
Information on Acosta’s funeral arrangements was not publicly available as of Tuesday afternoon.
Monday morning’s incident marked the 13th fatal collision in Beaufort County so far this year, according to preliminary figures from the SCHP. That’s nearly double the seven deaths recorded in the county during the same six-month period in 2025.
