Driver of St. Helena Island crash involving infant identified as Beaufort woman

A Beaufort woman identified as the driver of a single-car crash involving an infant Wednesday morning on St. Helena Island remains in critical condition.

Jasmine Polite, 22, was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital in serious condition after the sedan she was driving left the roadway on Fripp Point Road around 11 a.m., struck a culvert, went airborne and struck a tree 14-feet in the air before coming to rest on its roof on the road.

S.C. Highway Patrol spokesman Matthew Southern said Thursday that the 4-month-old in the vehicle was strapped into a car seat but the seat was not properly installed in the vehicle.

When rescue crews arrived at the scene, Polite was pinned in the back seat of the car, and the baby was lying outside the vehicle with a broken femur and serious head trauma, according to Scott Harris, spokesman for the Lady’s Island-St. Helena Fire District.

The infant was flown to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston from Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

Polite was also transferred to MUSC.

The condition of the child was not available.

Southern said Thursday the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Driver of St. Helena Island crash involving infant identified as Beaufort woman."