More than 40 killed in Beaufort, Jasper county traffic accidents in 2024. Here’s where
Forty-four people were killed in a total of 38 fatal traffic collisions last year in Beaufort and Jasper counties, marking an average year for roadway deaths so far this decade.
The deaths included 26 people in Beaufort County and 18 in Jasper County, according to preliminary data from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. Six were motorcyclists, five were pedestrians and four were riding bicycles or dirt bikes.
Those numbers are on pace with recent years: Since 2020, cumulative deaths in Beaufort and Jasper have regularly exceeded 40 per year. Local data shows a peak in 2016, when 55 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents across both counties.
Vehicles speeding and running off the roadway were the two most common causes in last year’s set of fatal crashes. The SCDPS listed as many as three “contributing factors” for each 2024 incident.
Here’s the breakdown of how many times certain contributing factors were cited as primary, secondary or tertiary causes in Beaufort and Jasper counties’ 2024 fatal crashes.
- Ran off road: 15
- Exceeding authorized speed limit: 13
- Wrong side/wrong way: 6
- Failed to yield right of way: 6
- Driver under the influence: 5
- Pedestrian illegally in roadway: 5
- Driving too fast for conditions: 4
- Disregarded signs/signals/etc.: 3
- Improper lane usage/change: 3
- Pedestrian not visible (dark clothing): 3
- Non-motorist failed to yield right of way: 2
- Non-motorist under the influence: 2
- Improper crossing: 2
- Weather condition/road surface condition: 2
- Medical-related: 1
- Aggressive operation of vehicle: 1
Both counties reported one crash that claimed multiple lives last year. All three occupants in a Toyota sedan were killed after the car hydroplaned in southern Jasper County in early February 2024. In May, a three-vehicle accident on St. Helena Island left five people dead.
The SCDPS data did not include several deaths related to miscellaneous traffic incidents, such as a Hardeeville man’s drowning after his car crashed into a retention pond in February 2024 and a woman’s April death after falling from a golf cart inside the Margaritaville community. It also excludes a deadly single-car crash in Hilton Head’s Sea Pines in May, which was believed to be caused by a medical event.
Map of 2024 fatal crashes in Beaufort, Jasper counties
Click on any of the markers to view information on a fatal collision, including dates, the circumstances of the crash and previous news coverage. Pedestrian fatalities are labeled with black markers, motorcyclists in brown and bicyclists in yellow.
On Hilton Head Island, all five of the year’s deadly collisions occurred within three miles of the island’s entrance. Most Bluffton-area fatalities happened around U.S. 278 or nearby secondary roads.
The majority of fatal crashes in the rest of Beaufort County happened on major highways like S.C. 170 (Okatie Highway), U.S. 21 (Trask Parkway) and U.S. 17 near Sheldon.
In Jasper County, eight of the year’s 18 roadway deaths were clustered around Hardeeville, which is a traffic hot spot due to the town’s I-95 junction and large number of connecting routes. The remaining fatal collisions occurred on mostly remote, rural roads with little to no streetlight coverage.
Twenty-seven of the 38 deadly crashes in Beaufort and Jasper counties happened after sundown, and 25 of those collisions occurred in an area with no streetlights, according to the SCDPS data.
Only eight of the crashes happened during daylight, representing just over 20% of the data. Three fatal collisions occurred during dusk or dawn.
Traffic fatalities have largely mirrored population growth in Beaufort and Jasper counties, which both are among the fastest-growing counties in South Carolina.
To account for population differences, SCDPS calculates fatality rates relative to the number of miles traveled by motorists in each county. Under those conditions, Beaufort and Jasper regularly rank among the safer counties in the state.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
