Sledding hit-and-run in Port Royal area involved an engaged couple, report says
A newly obtained police report outlines the severe injuries of two women who were run over by a pickup truck while sledding in the Port Royal area over the weekend. The report also reveals one of the sledders was engaged to the driver, who was arrested for allegedly leaving the scene of the crash while driving under the influence.
The two sledders were a mother, 47, and her 20-year-old daughter, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident report and a public records search. The mother is listed as a resident of Shell Point Road, where the two women were reportedly struck by a truck after being pulled on a makeshift sled by another vehicle.
Witnesses told police the mother was engaged to the driver of the pickup truck, 46-year-old Beaufort man Richard Quinn Davidson. He was charged by the South Carolina Highway Patrol with felony DUI and felony hit-and-run for allegedly leaving the scene after hitting his fiancée and her daughter, according to the incident report.
The two women’s injuries were “non-life-threatening,” and included a fractured skull, punctured lung, broken ribs, several broken vertebrae and a dislocated shoulder, the police report says. They were taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital, sheriff’s office spokesperson Lt. Daniel Allen previously said.
SCHP spokesperson Trooper Nick Pye said on Tuesday he did not have an update on the women’s conditions. He could not verify whether Davidson took field sobriety tests, a breathalyzer or a blood test prior to his arrest.
With 3.5 inches, the Port Royal area recorded the most snowfall in Beaufort and Jasper counties during the weekend’s winter storm, according to National Weather Service data. For the second year in a row, wintry weather closed public schools and government offices in the Lowcountry as police asked drivers to stay off the roads if possible.
How the crash happened
EMS crews arrived around 7:50 p.m. to the Shell Point neighborhood, located off S.C. 128 (Savannah Highway) near the western reaches of Port Royal town limits. There they found two women “laying in the road” and covered in snow, the incident report says.
The crash happened after the two women got off the sled that was being pulled by a truck, witnesses told police. Davidson, driving a different truck, allegedly “lost control” of his Dodge and ran over the women, according to the report.
Witnesses said Davidson then made a U-turn, stopped next to the women and “asked why they were in the roadway” before driving off again, the report says.
Beaufort County deputies visited Davidson’s home, also on Shell Point Road, and noted the Dodge truck at the residence, according to the report. Deputies established a perimeter, SCHP troopers arrived and “after several hours,” police reached Davidson by phone and got him to walk outside so he could be detained, according to the report.
Davidson was booked into the Beaufort County jail just before 2 a.m. Sunday on two counts of felony DUI and two counts of felony hit-and-run involving great bodily injury, corresponding with the two people he allegedly struck, Pye previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Judicial records show Davidson was released around 4 p.m. that afternoon on personal recognizance bonds totaling $60,000, meaning he would not be required to pay the amount unless he violated court conditions.
His felony DUI charge is punishable by a prison sentence between 30 days and 15 years and a fine between $5,100 and $10,100, according to S.C. law. For a conviction of felony hit-and-run involving great bodily injury, state statutes call for a prison term between 30 days and 10 years and a fine between $5,000 and $10,000.
This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 3:55 PM.
