Teen in truck bed threw lit firework onto Hilton Head highway, police say
Four teenagers were cited with disturbing the public peace after a lit firework was allegedly thrown from the bed of a moving truck onto the highway on Hilton Head Island early Saturday morning, according to police.
Two of the teens in the white Toyota Tacoma were minors, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident report, while the driver and one other occupant were 18 or 19.
A deputy patrolling U.S. 278 (William Hilton Parkway) on north-end Hilton Head described hearing a “loud explosion” around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, the report says, shortly after police received a call about occupants of a white pickup “throwing fireworks from the bed of the truck.”
The deputy “rapidly caught up with the vehicle” and conducted a traffic stop, removing two teens from the cab and two others from the truck bed, according to the police report. All four were detained and interviewed.
An 18-year-old from Okatie who was in the truck bed told deputies the group had been at Burkes Beach, where they had “fired off multiple fireworks.” On the way back to Northridge Plaza, where some of the teens had parked their cars, he “accidentally lit a firework” from the truck bed and threw it onto the highway “to prevent injury,” he was documented telling police in the report.
All four teens received citations for disturbing the public peace, a Town of Hilton Head Island ordinance that generally forbids using loudspeakers in public and engaging in “personal conduct of an excessively loud nature.” The two minors were released to their parents, according to the incident report.
Disturbing the public peace is punishable by a fine of $1,087.50, according to Beaufort County court records.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette do not publish the names of individuals who were charged with misdemeanor crimes unless the accused is a public figure or if revealing their name is a matter of public interest.
