According to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, a Greenville County deputy was involved in a deadly pedestrian accident.

South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers said that the accident happened at 5:36 a.m. on Thursday on Augusta Road at Old Augusta Road south of Interstate 85.

Johnny Melvin Crouch, aged 65, was trying to cross the road to get to a city bus stop when he was struck by multiple vehicles. Troopers went on to say that after Crouch was hit by the Deputy, there was then another accident involving two other vehicles.

It does not appear that the deputy was responding to a call at the time of the accident and the Highway Patrol has been called in to investigate, which is standard with any deputy-involved collision. Meanwhile the deputy has been placed on administrative leave and the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office Professional Standards Unit is also conducting an internal investigation to determine if there were any policy violations.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

Early Monday morning on I-26, a man from Greenville died after a tire on his vehicle had a blow out.

According to officials the accident happened at around 3 a.m. near mile marker 156 on the interstate. Allen was one of six people traveling west in the vehicle when the tire blew. Following the blow out, the driver lost control and, according to Lance Cpl. Judd Jones, with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the vehicle ran off the left side of the road.

Orangeburg County Deputy Coroner Sean Fogle said that Theron M. Allen, 32, who was ejected from the vehicle, died at the scene.

A 14-year-old and a 19-year old passenger were also ejected. The 14-year old was flown to Palmetto Health Richland in Columbia along with a 9-year-old passenger who was injured although not ejected. Two 19-year-olds, including the one who was also thrown from the vehicle, were taken to the Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg.

Jones said that al had serious but non-life-threatening injuries. He went on to say that the driver of the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt and suffered only minor injuries.

The interstate was blocked for two hours during the incident and the SC Highway Patrol continues to investigate it.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

At 1.30 a.m. July 25 a train carrying millions of gallons of ethanol derailed near Spartanburg.

The train was pulling 90 black tank cars filled with about two million gallons of ethanol, more than enough to fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools. Fortunately although the tankers landed upside down, the train was moving slowly and none of the cars punctured.

The wreck has highlighted a safety debate that’s arisen as the amount of crude oil and ethanol the nation transports by rail has increased dramatically with the energy boom.

Transportation safety officials say that trains are transporting higher amounts of crude oil and ethanol on trains that can stretch up to a mile long. They say that the tank cars are not thick enough to prevent punctures and spills when they are involved in accidents, and that the trains are driving too fast through urban areas.

Last July, a train operator didn’t brake enough when a 72-car oil train took a curve in the Quebec city of Lac Megantic, leading to the derailment of the train and a massive explosion which killed 47 people and destroyed the village center.

Trains carrying large quantities of ethanol travel through cities and towns in the Upstate more than 150 times every year, through the heart of Spartanburg and Greenville and through smaller towns like Williamston and Pelzer.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

A grandfather and his grandson have both been killed in an accident which occurred on Sunday afternoon in the 1200 block of North Main Street and which is currently being investigated by Sumter County deputies

Sumter Coroner Havrin Bullock has confirmed that two people died and six were injured in the crash when a 1997 Lincoln Town car crossed the white line and hit a 2003 Ford Expedition.

Both occupants in the Lincoln died at the scene, even though they were wearing seatbelts, and they were 65-year-old Ronald W. Holmes and his 7-year-old grandson, as yet unnamed.

All six passengers in the Ford Expedition were also wearing seatbelts and all were injured. Some were taken to Tuorney Regional Medical Center and others who were more seriously injured were airlifted.

On Monday afternoon, Bullock announced that the blood-alcohol level of Ronald Holmes was nearly three times the legal limit to drive when the accident happened.

So far no charges have been filed but the South Carolina Highway Patrol continues to investigate.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

Michael Sivak, a researcher at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, has analyzed federal traffic data, and found a wide difference in the fatality rates due to traffic accidents across the different U.S. states.

Motorists in Massachusetts and Washington DC have the lowest chance of dying in a traffic accident whereas drivers in West Virginia, South Carolina and North Dakota, have the highest.

Sivak looked at the data in two ways; deaths per distance driven and relative to the state population..

In terms of distance, West Virginia has the highest fatality rate in the nation, with 17.63 deaths per billion vehicle miles traveled, more than four times the rate of deaths found in the District of Columbia, where there are only 4.2 deaths per billion vehicle miles traveled. The national average is 11.3 fatalities per billion vehicle miles traveled.

In terms of death per population, Washington DC has a fatality rate of 2.37 per 100,000 people whereas the worst state is North Dakota, where people are more than 10 times more likely to die, with a per-100,000-population rate of 24.3. The national average is 10.69 deaths per 100,000.

Overall, residents of the Northern Plains states and South have the worst fatality rates with Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Dakota, West Virginia, South Carolina and Montana all ranked in the bottom 10 on both lists.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

The new Fire Chief of the year from the South Carolina State Association of Fire Chiefs is Easley fire chief Butch Womack.

Womack is no stranger to awards, having won widespread recognition for his work and since he was appointed chief in 1993, as well as state and national awards, he has served as president of both the S.C. State Association of Fire Chiefs and as president of the South Carolina Firefighters Association.

Over the years, Womack and his team of fellow firefighters have helped a lot of people. These days firefighters don’t just fight fires, they can cover everything from a house fire to extracting someone from a car at the scene of an accident or responding to a carbon monoxide threat.

Womack does admit to lots of scary moments, not only for him but for the team, and says he always worries who will go into a fire and who will come back out.

He says that he knew the moment he joined the Easley Fire Department in 1984 that that was where he would stay for the rest of his life, but he had no idea that his path would include becoming chief let alone win so many awards.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

At 6.25 a.m. on Wednesday on Hammett Bridge Road, in front of Riverside Middle School, three teens were involved in a tragic accident.

Firefighters were called to the vehicle which burst into flames and meanwhile bystanders helped the driver and rear seat passenger out of the car. The front seat passenger was trapped inside and died at the scene although the cause of death was chest trauma rather than the blaze. He was named as 17 year old Aaron Jeffrey Al-Rawi Jones, of Taylors.

Meanwhile the driver, Andrew Chase Jackson, aged 16 and from Greer was taken to hospital where he also died.  The third person was flown to the August Burn Center in Georgia.

According to Lt. Jim Holcombe from Greer police, Jackson did not have a driver’s license or a learner’s permit and the car was travelling at between 70 and 80 mph in a 35 mph area. He had no idea how Jackson obtained the car but he did say it had not been reported stolen.

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

Trucker Sleep

Dr Mark Roseland of the National Transportation Safety Board has warned that a lack of sleep can cause your performance to be impaired.

He stated that the average time someone should spend sleeping is eight hours a day, and if you are to lose only two of these hours in one night, your performance while driving will be the same as someone driving when they have been drinking alcohol.

He went on to say, that not only can lack of sleep in one single night affect the ability to concentrate, but that you can also accumulate, what he called, a sleep debt over time.

Losing one hour’s sleep a day for a five day week would mean a sleep debt of five hours. However this debt can be cancelled out by sleeping for longer at the weekend.

The good news is that you do not have to sleep for the whole five hours you have lost, as someone with sleep debt will sleep deeper and hence there is no need to sleep for the whole five hours.

However, should your sleep debt begin to mount up significantly, then it will become harder and harder to make it up and your performance will continue to be impaired.

Driving while drowsy is an incredibly hazardous activity. If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina involving drowsy driver,  please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.

Those who can claim following accidents caused by the defective switch installed in some GM cars are the families of those killed, plus injured survivors. The scheme will not only compensate those who were travelling in the GM cars themselves, but also victims in other vehicles who were involved in the same accident or any pedestrians.

The compensation plan will only pay out for those driving small GM cars which were involved in a recall for the faulty ignition switch this year, and not other GM vehicles involved in subsequent recalls.

In order to claim, the switch must have been at fault, which is evidenced by the airbag failing to deploy, and anyone who claims under the scheme will have to agree not to pursue General Motors for any further payment.

It cannot be denied that proving the switch was at fault may not be easy, as many of the vehicles have been destroyed and many accidents happened a long time ago. Hence while the investigation teams may have information available, such as the speed before the accident, whether the brakes worked, and the seat belts locked, often they will have to rely on police and insurance company reports instead.

Recall

If you, or someone you know, have been injured in a serious car accident in South Carolina involving a car which was subject to a recall, please contact us today at (864) 280-7660 or contact us online, so we can schedule your free initial consultation and get you on you the financial compensation you deserve.