Family member of man killed in US 278 crash on Hilton Head sues driver, car owner
The sister of a 22-year-old Hilton Head Island man who was killed in a car crash last month is suing the driver who is accused of causing the deadly collision, according to a recently filed wrongful death lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Beaufort County by Lindsey Poirot, names Esteban Javier Rosa-Mendez and Carlos Esteban Rosa-Mendez as the defendants.
On March 2, 19-year-old Esteban Javier Rosa-Mendez, of Hilton Head, was driving a vehicle and “disregarded a traffic light” at the intersection of Gumtree Road and U.S. 278 on the island, according to S.C. Highway Patrol. The vehicle then crashed into another car, which was pushed into a third vehicle.
Colton Poirot was driving the first car that was struck, and died at the scene from his injuries, the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office previously said.
Esteban Javier Rosa-Mendez was arrested on the night of the collision and charged with driving under suspension. He was later charged with reckless homicide in Poriot’s death. He is still incarcerated at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
Carlos Esteban Rosa-Mendez, also 19 and a Hilton Head resident, owned the vehicle Esteban Javier Rosa-Mendez was driving and allowed him to drive despite knowing, or having “reason to know,” he was “unlicensed, incompetent, unfit, inexperienced, and/or reckless,” the lawsuit says.
The suit also alleges the driver was operating the vehicle after smoking marijuana and “driving more than twice the speed of the posted speed limit,” in addition to other actions that caused the collision.
Because of the defendants’ actions, Poirot “met an untimely death and his beneficiaries have endured grief, sorrow, shock, wounded feelings, mental and emotional anguish and anxiety, and loss of the decedent’s support, love, companionship, and consortium, along with other damages,” the lawsuit concludes.
The plaintiff, represented by Tabor Vaux of Bluffton, asks for “actual and punitive damages, costs and other such relief.”
Before the crash
The lawsuit alleges police tried to stop the defendant for speeding before the fatal collision and that he led the deputy on a high-speed chase.
A day after the crash, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Bob Bromage said a deputy attempted to stop a vehicle a few minutes before the fatal crash for going 63 mph in a 45-mph zone. The deputy turned on the blue lights and followed a red car from U.S. 278 onto Squire Pope Road for about 30 seconds before discontinuing the pursuit in the area of Murray Avenue and stopping at the side of the road, Bromage said.
The crash occurred more than two minutes later and at least two miles away. Bromage previously said the Sheriff’s Office had yet to confirm whether the vehicle the deputy attempted to stop was the same one involved in the subsequent crash.
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 1:04 PM.
