Latest I-95 ‘Coffin Corridor’ crash victim identified as 90-year-old Argentinian woman

The victim of the latest crash along I-95’s “Coffin Corridor” has been named as a 90-year-old woman from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Jasper County Coroner Martin Sauls III identified the victim of the single-vehicle crash reported around 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday as Nelida Elsa Dispigno Gimenez.

The crash happened near the 16-mile marker. Eduardo Zanza, 57, of Florida, was driving a 2016 Cadillac SUV that ran off the right side of the roadway, struck a tree and then overturned, according to the S.C. Highway Patrol.

Two other passengers, along with Zanza, were transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

The area falls within the miles along I-95 that were found to be particularly deadly in February 2015 report by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette that led the S.C. Department of Transportation to initiate plans to clear trees from the median and sides of the roadway.

Reporting by the newspapers showed that Jasper County’s portion of I-95, which includes the main gateway to Bluffton and Hilton Head Island, had an unusually high rate of fatalities compared with the rest of the state, in large part because the proximity of trees to the highway failed to give drivers time to correct or stop safely. Approximately 75 percent of the fatalities along the Jasper stretch involved vehicles hitting trees.

From 2010 through 2016, at least 30 tree-related fatalities have occurred along Jasper County’s deadly stretch of I-95, according to the Office of Highway Safety. At least six of those deaths occurred after DOT’s announcement to remove trees along the interstate’s edges and median in early 2015. Among the victims include James Matthew Eddins, a N.C. truck driver, and Sharon Toomer, a Ridgeland resident and longtime cafeteria worker at Hardeeville Elementary School.

In much of Jasper County, trees are within 15 or 20 feet from the road.

State highway safety guidelines recommend a clear zone of at least 30 feet.

DOT is aiming for a 55-foot clear zone along both sides of the highway and in the median from the Georgia state line to mile marker 32.5. The $6 million to $8 million federally funded project is expected to take 12 to 18 months.

DOT originally estimated work to begin in 2016, but construction is now slated to begin at the end of the summer of 2017.

Avoiding cost overruns and adapting to new technology prompted some of the delays.

This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Latest I-95 ‘Coffin Corridor’ crash victim identified as 90-year-old Argentinian woman."