Ex-Dominion Energy worker gets prison time for Beaufort DUI crash in company truck
A former Dominion Energy technician was sent to prison after he pleaded guilty to driving a company truck under the influence in 2019, causing a violent crash in the Beaufort area.
Joseph Edward McComas, 38, of Summerville, South Carolina, received a 5-year prison sentence followed by 5 years of probation.
If McComas violates the terms of his partially suspended sentence, including a “zero tolerance” order for alcohol and drug use, he would risk serving a full 10-year prison term. He faced an upgraded charge of felony DUI because the collision caused “great bodily injury” to a woman in another vehicle.
Following his release, he would be required to speak to schools and other groups about the consequences of alcohol and drugs, according to Beaufort County court records.
Circuit Court Judge Marvin H. Dukes III handed down the sentence April 9.
Records from the South Carolina Department of Corrections show McComas was admitted April 10 to the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in Columbia, which is the state’s primary intake facility for new inmates.
Reached through email, a Dominion Energy spokesperson said McComas was no longer employed with the company. “The company extends our sympathy to the family who was injured,” the statement read.
A Beaufort-based criminal defense attorney who represented McComas did not immediately respond to questions left via email.
Crash details: Reckless driving from Bluffton to Beaufort
Around 7 p.m. on May 8, 2019, a 911 caller reported a large white Dominion Energy truck “driving all over” S.C. 170 with the driver’s head “bobbing” as he headed north out of the Bluffton area, according to an incident report from the Beaufort Police Department. The driver was later identified as McComas.
A Beaufort officer on his way home from a patrol shift spotted the truck as it passed into city limits “at an extremely high rate of speed” while switching lanes “erratically and quickly,” the report says. Chasing after the speeder, the officer also noted the company vehicle tailgating a sedan and cutting off another vehicle on the highway.
The truck then turned left toward W. K. Alston Drive and “directly into the pathway” of a Toyota Sienna driving on the opposite side of S.C. 170, colliding head-on with the front driver’s side of the minivan, according to the report.
Noting McComas was “semi-conscious” but appeared “very lethargic,” the Beaufort officer ran to the minivan, where onlookers were working together to get multiple children out of the totaled vehicle. Both cars were leaking fluids, the incident report said, so the officer asked a bystander to stand by with a fire extinguisher “just in case.”
Fire crews and troopers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol helped to remove the van’s older female driver, whose arm was fractured in a “Z” shape, the report said. McComas — who the officer said smelled overwhelmingly of airbag powder, diesel fuel, gas and other fluids — was able to exit his truck and walk to the grassy median on his own.
A toxicology test revealed McComas’ blood-alcohol content was .181, more than twice the legal limit of .08, according to a laboratory report from the S.C. Law Enforcement Division.
An SCHP trooper on scene told police the agency had been “watching and calling on” McComas’ vehicle all the way from Buckwalter Parkway in Bluffton, the incident report said.
It was unclear if McComas was on technician duty with Dominion at the time of the crash and the company did not answer additional questions sent Tuesday.
Dominion Energy is a multi-billion-dollar company that manages a large part of the electricity grid in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It serves an estimated 821,000 customers in the Palmetto State.
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM.
