Varnville man killed after pickup truck flips, strikes tree in northern Beaufort County
A Varnville man was killed in a single-vehicle collision Wednesday night after his truck overturned and struck a tree on a remote road east of Yemassee.
Martin Bennett, 51, died on scene of the collision around 8:35 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office.
Benett was the driver and sole occupant of a 2001 Chevrolet pickup truck that had been driving on River Road, which branches off U.S. 17 and runs east-west through the rural northernmost stretches of Beaufort County. In the area of Auldbrass Plantation Road — about a mile east of Yemassee town limits — the truck traveled off the left side of the road, flipped and struck a tree, according to Master Trooper Brandon Bolt of the SCHP.
River Road has a speed limit of 55 mph and features no streetlight coverage.
An obituary for Bennett or funeral arrangements were not immediately available. Public records show he had lived in the Hampton County area since at least the early 1990s.
The collision marked the fourth traffic-related death on Beaufort County roadways so far this year.
- Feb. 1: A 10-year-old boy was struck and killed by a pickup truck while riding his bike in a Bluffton-area neighborhood.
- Feb. 8: The driver of a Mini Cooper was killed after the car collided with a tree and caught fire off U.S. 278 on Hilton Head Island.
- Feb 10: A motorcyclist died in a collision with a tree on Trask Parkway.
