99 acres of deadly trees along I-95 will soon vanish. But fatal crashes, lawsuits continue

About 99 acres of trees are being cleared along Interstate 95 in Jasper County — a 33-mile stretch of road dubbed the “Coffin Corridor” — to reduce fatal crashes.

The long-awaited safety improvements project is expected to wrap up in October, according to Eric Hall of the S.C. Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the $9.8 million project. The work, which is $750,000 over budget, includes removing trees and stumps, flattening out some slopes on the edges of the roadway, adding rumble strips, cable barriers and guardrails.

In the meantime, motorists continue to die from collisions with trees, and lawsuits are piling up.

In many spots along the deadly section of interstate, trees are within 15 or 20 feet of the road, according to a 2015 investigation by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. That distance doesn’t adhere to state highway safety guidelines and puts motorists who run off the road at a higher risk.

Hardeeville Police Chief Sam Woodward has seen firsthand the horrors of the tree-lined roadway — cars wrapped around trees, cars upside down in trees, tractor-trailers in trees.

“You see pretty much everything,” he said, referring to the stretch of I-95 in Hardeeville, which runs from mile marker 3 to mile marker 13. “Nothing shocks me. When you go to those scenes, and you see people crushed by a tree, it never leaves a good feeling in your soul.”

After becoming chief four-and-a-half years ago — and after a string of fatalities on I-95 — he knew that the trees needed to come out.

“Everybody asks me what caused them (vehicles) to leave the road,” Woodward said. “It doesn’t matter what caused them to leave the road. The fact is that they’re leaving the road and hitting a tree, (which) is what caused the fatality. I was tired of getting the coroner and making phone calls to families saying someone has gotten killed on the interstate because they hit a tree.”

The stretch accounts for a small portion of the interstate but has been the site of 148 tree-related collisions since 2015. Of those, 54 resulted in injury and five were fatal, according to preliminary data from the S.C. Department of Public Safety.

Its deadly history goes back farther than that. More tree-related deaths occurred along I-95 in Jasper County than any other county the interstate runs through between 2009 and 2014, according to the analysis by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

An ongoing problem

While work on the project continues, so do fatal crashes.

On July 26, Andera Hardy, was driving in rainy conditions going south on I-95 when she went off the road and struck a tree. The crash killed her son, 9-year-old Ephraim Burton, who suffered a brain injury and skull fracture, the Jasper County coroner, Martin Sauls III, said previously.

Hardy declined to be interviewed for this story.

Her son’s life is one of many cut short because of crashes involving trees on I-95 in Jasper County.

• In 2016, a cafeteria worker at Hardeeville Elementary School, Sharon Toomer, struck a tree and was killed.
  
  
• That same year, James Matthew Eddins, a truck driver, died from blunt force trauma after he, too, hit trees.
  
  
• A Hardeeville police officer, Cpl. Mark Jones, died in 2005 when his patrol car hit a tree while he was responding to a call for backup in Ridgeland.
  
  

The 2015 investigation by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette found nearly 32 percent of the state’s I-95 deaths happen in Jasper County.

There are many reasons one might lose control and leave the road, such as medical emergencies or blowing a tire. And when trees are close to the roadway, there may be no time for a driver to correct the vehicle to avoid slamming into a tree.

Woodward said once the project is completed, police will review crash statistics to determine if the safety project helped reduce fatalities in Hardeeville.

Sauls, who has been Jasper County’s coroner for 40 years, said most of the fatal crashes he’s called to occur along I-95. However, he said he does not necessarily see more tree-related crashes on this road than elsewhere in the county. And he’s unsure if the ongoing project will change anything.

“They have not finished the project yet, so the jury is still out on if it’s going to make any difference or not,” he said. “It’s a little too early at this point in time.”

Woodward, however, is hopeful.

“I think we will see a difference right away,” he said.

Lawsuits stacking up

Since The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette first reported on the deadly tree-related crashes in early 2015, nine lawsuits have been filed over three crashes, most alleging negligence by the Transportation Department in, among other things, allowing trees to grow in medians or too close to the roadway.

Three lawsuits, filed the first week of July, describe an incident last May in which a vehicle driving northbound on I-95 between mile marker 16 and 17 hit water in the roadway, which caused it to hydroplane, veer off the road and strike trees in the median.

Andres Manuel Starkand and Maria Elsa Starkand have filed suit. A separate lawsuit with Maria suing as a representative for the estate of Nelida Elsa Dispigno was also filed.

Dispigno was a passenger and was ejected from the vehicle. She suffered “severe” injuries and ultimately died, according to the lawsuit.

The driver of the vehicle is not named in the lawsuits, but previous reporting by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette names Eduardo Zanza as the driver. Dispigno was 90 years old and from Beunos Aires, Argentina.

Maria and Andres each suffered serious injuries, including to their heads, necks and backs. Those injuries are permanent, and required hospital care, according to the suit.

Each complaint alleges negligence by the Transportation Department for, among other things, not warning motorists of the “condition” of the road and allowing trees in the median when “the SCDOT knew, or should have known, of the high incidence of deaths caused by collisions with trees” on I-95 in Jasper County.

The Ridgeland attorney for the Starkands, Daniel Henderson, said this month he could not comment on the pending litigation, nor could his clients.

Answering to all three complaints, Robert Achurch, a Beaufort attorney for the Transportation Department, wrote that any injuries were “caused by the negligence of a third party” that the department had no control over. Achurch did not return two calls seeking comment.

According to an SCDOT analysis, from 2011 to 2015 the location with the second most tree-related crashes was between mile markers 8 and 9.

A crash in that spot prompted four 2016 lawsuits that describe a 2014 crash that killed two. Water had again pooled in the roadway and caused a vehicle to go off the road and hit trees in the median.

Reyna Juarez Gomez, Edgar Rodriguez, Arturo Jimenez-Perez and Florencio Gonzalez Reyes have filed suit over the incident. Two people died in the crash, according to the lawsuits.

Juventino Gonzalez Reyes, 27, and Omar Bustamante Juarez, 22, were ejected from the back seat and hit pine trees, according to previous reporting by the newspapers. Reyes died at the scene and Juarez died later at the hospital. Neither was wearing a seat belt.

Ridgeland attorney Matthew Creech, representing Reyes, Jimenez-Perez and Rodriguez, declined to comment.

Beaufort attorney Cory Fleming, representing Gomez, did not return multiple calls seeking comment.

Achurch is also the Transportation Department’s attorney for these cases.

According to a department analysis, between 2011 and 2015 the majority of crashes where vehicles hit trees happened between mile markers 15 and 16.

And that’s where Lisa Koon, driving a 2010 Mercury in July 2013, encountered water in the road, lost control and hit a tree.

This crash, however, was not fatal. Koon, along with her husband Ronald Koon, each filed separate lawsuits against the Transportation Department and O.C. Welch Ford Lincoln.

Henderson, who is also an attorney for the Koons, declined to comment.

The lawsuits allege the department did not maintain the road and allowed trees to grow within the right of way, creating a hazard for vehicles that might go off the road. They also allege that SCDOT failed to install safeguards to prevent those vehicles that leave the road from striking trees.

Christy Scott, a Walterboro attorney representing the SCDOT, declined to comment. Brandt Horton, an attorney for O.C. Welch, did not return a call seeking comment.

According to Jasper County court records, the cases have been settled.

Tree clearing along I-95

If medians are less than 160 feet wide, all trees will be cleared. If medians are 160 feet wide or more, 55-foot clear zones will be cut on either side, said Toby Wickenhoefer, a resident engineer for the Transportation Department. Shoulders will also have a 55-foot clear zone, according to project information available online.

Specific information about the I-95 project, detailing work by mile marker, was submitted by SCDOT to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in January 2017. According to that information:

• Between mile markers 0 and 23.19, trees will be cleared and stumps removed on the shoulders and medians — either completely or partially depending on median width. More than 8 miles of cable barriers will be added to prevent vehicles from crossing medians into oncoming traffic. Some slopes on the edges of the roadway will be flattened out, and about 4,500 feet of guardrail will be installed.
  
  
• Between mile markers 23.19 and 32.5, trees will be cleared and stumps cut close to the ground, but not removed, along the shoulders and medians — either completely or partially, depending on median width.
  
  

This story was originally published August 25, 2018 at 5:00 AM.