Driver, 86, arrested after pedestrian was struck outside Hilton Head eatery
An 86-year-old Hilton Head Island man is behind bars for felony hit-and-run after allegedly striking a pedestrian outside a gourmet restaurant.
Kenneth J. Hall, whose address was listed as the Holiday Indigo Pines retirement community, was charged Friday evening with hit-and-run involving great bodily injury and three magistrate-level offenses related to a lack of registration and insurance.
Surveillance footage from outside Lulu Kitchen around 9:30 a.m. Friday shows a woman walking toward the parking lot when a passing dark-colored station wagon appears to strike her. The woman falls to the pavement as the vehicle drives away.
Police cut open the woman’s pant legs to discover her left ankle and right leg were broken. She was taken by ambulance to Savannah’s Memorial Health University Medical Center, according to an incident report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Trooper Nick Pye of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said investigators identified the suspect vehicle as a 2004 Mercury station wagon. Hall was arrested hours after the collision and received a $100,000 cash bond for the felony hit-and-run charge, according to Beaufort County court records.
Lulu Kitchen is part of the Fresh Market Shoppes strip mall off U.S. 278 (William Hilton Parkway), near the entrance to Long Cove Club on southeast Hilton Head.
Scott Hastings, an award-winning chef at Lulu Kitchen, showed the restaurant’s footage to police when they responded. He called the footage “pretty graphic.”
The chef said he believed the incident could have been intentional. Hall allowed two other people to cross the street shortly before accelerating into the pedestrian and blowing past a stop sign in front of the restaurant, Hastings said.
Hall remained in custody at the Beaufort County Detention Center as of Monday morning.
Under South Carolina law, hit-and-run involving great bodily injury is punishable by a prison sentence between 30 days and 10 years and a fine between $5,000 and $10,000.
This story was originally published November 24, 2025 at 11:16 AM.
