One woman killed in Friday morning crash on I-95, highway patrol says.
One woman died in a crash on I-95 Friday morning in Colleton County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol and the Colleton County Coroner’s Office.
The crash happened at 10:35 a.m. when an Infinity sedan went off the highway and struck a tree.
The passenger in the car died as a result of the crash.
She has not yet been identified, according to the coroner’s office.
Coroner Richard Harvey told The Island Packet he’s not yet sure where the woman is from or where she was traveling.
The driver of the vehicle was transported to Trident Medical Center in North Charleston via helicopter, according to the highway patrol.
The crash happened around the 66 mile marker, which is about 10 miles north of Walterboro.
Crashes on I-95
Tree-related crashes are so common on I-95 in South Carolina that one section south of where Friday’s crash happened has been dubbed “the coffin corridor.”
In 2015, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette found that 22 people had died along the Jasper County portion of I-95, which is about 40 miles south of Colleton County.
More people had died in tree-related wrecks between 2010 and 2015 along Jasper County’s 35 miles of the interstate than in any other county that touches I-95.
Approximately 75% of the fatalities along the Jasper County stretch involved vehicles hitting trees.
As a result, the S.C. Department of Transportation marked 34 miles of highway for a tree removal project. It was completed in April 2019.
Total tree-related collisions dropped almost 60% between 2018 and 2019 and no one was killed after crashing into a tree in 2019, according to data from the DPS analyzed by the newspapers in January.
The total number of collisions dropped 14.8% in 2019 compared to the previous year.
“I’m a Southern gentleman. I love the wildlife, and I love the trees,” said Hardeeville Police Chief Sam Woodward said in January. But the tree-clearing “is a matter of public safety” — something he had long called for.
This story was originally published December 12, 2020 at 9:39 AM.
