20 people died in Beaufort Co. vehicle crashes in 2025. See where, what happened
Twenty people were killed in traffic crashes across Beaufort County last year, including six pedestrians, two bicyclists and two motorcyclists.
Nearly a third of the year’s fatal collisions happened on U.S. 21 in northern Beaufort County. Other hotspots included north-end Hilton Head Island, S.C. 170 (Okatie Highway) and U.S. 278 (Fording Island Road) in the Bluffton area.
The 2025 numbers represent a 23% decrease from 2024, when vehicle collisions claimed 26 lives in Beaufort County. Contributing to that year’s uptick was a five-vehicle crash in May 2024 that left five people dead on St. Helena Island.
National data puts South Carolina in the top 10 states with the most roadway deaths relative to population. The Beaufort area sees far fewer fatalities relative to larger population centers like Charleston, Greenville and Spartanburg counties.
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.
Two of the year’s traffic fatalities in Beaufort County involved hit-and-run collisions, one of which remains unsolved. In October, a 26-year-old man from Grays Hill turned himself in for fleeing the scene of a crash that killed a bicyclist over the Fourth of July weekend.
Preliminary counts show 914 total traffic deaths in South Carolina in 2025, according to a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Public Safety, but that number could increase as officials receive late reports.
Here’s a map that shows the 2025 fatal crashes in Beaufort County.
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.
Beaufort County’s 2025 fatality numbers represent a relative low compared to the past decade, according to SCDPS statistics.
Traffic fatality counts in Beaufort County from 2015-2025
2025: 20
2024: 26
2023: 22
2022: 22
2021: 26
2020: 20
2019: 15
2018: 21
2017: 26
2016: 30
2015: 18
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
