Motorcyclist dies in hospital after crash near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort
A motorcyclist died at the hospital Thursday evening after his bike ran off the highway near the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, officials say.
Allen Szczepek, 68, of Beaufort, was pronounced dead at 8:20 p.m. Thursday at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Shane Bowers of the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office.
The fatal crash happened around 4:30 p.m. Thursday as the man drove his 2002 Harley Davidson motorcycle north on U.S. 21 (Trask Parkway), according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
As the motorcycle passed the highway’s intersection with Glass Road, located about 1.5 miles north of MCAS Beaufort’s main entrance, the vehicle veered to the right and “spilled off the right side of the road,” Cpl. Nick Pye of the SCHP said in a press release.
First responders found Szczepek lying on the shoulder of U.S. 21 “in critical condition” and rushed him to the local hospital. He succumbed to his injuries awaiting an airlift to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Szczepek’s obituary or funeral arrangements had not been publicly shared as of Monday afternoon.
U.S. 21 consistently ranks among the most dangerous roadways in Beaufort County based on collision numbers, according to data from the S.C. Department of Public Safety.
Thursday’s deadly collision marked at least the eighth highway fatality in Beaufort County so far this year. In 2024, a total of 26 people were killed in traffic-related incidents across the county, six of whom were motorcyclists.
Beaufort County roadway deaths so far in 2025
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.
March 19: A Varnville resident was killed after his pickup truck flipped and struck a tree in northern Beaufort County.
April 27: A pedestrian was believed to be fatally struck by two vehicles that fled the scene near the Broad River Bridge. SCHP troopers asked for the public’s help in identifying the suspect drivers.
May 19: A Beaufort man was killed and three others were hospitalized after a six-vehicle pileup on Bluffton’s U.S. 278 near the entrance to Rose Hill Plantation.
June 7: A two-vehicle collision on S.C. 170 killed a driver from Hinesville, Georgia, and sent three of her passengers to the hospital.
This report will be updated.
