Ridgeway, SC Pedestrian Killed by Trucker in Hit-and-Run | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

A Ridgeway, South Carolina (SC), man died after getting struck by a tractor-trailer whose driver fled the scene of the fatal pedestrian accident. The deadly hit-and-run collision occurred shortly after 6 am on December 24, 2014, along a service road just off I-77 and Highway 34 named Contactors Way that connects an Exxon gas station to a Ramada motel at which the victim worked.

 

 

The timing and location of this fatal accident could point to two persistent problems for commercial truck drivers. The first is fatigue. Even though federal and state laws limit the time long-haul truckers can spend behind the wheel and mandate rest periods, too many tractor-trailer operators fall asleep while driving. The other contributing factor may have been driver distraction. Spotting pedestrians from the cab of a semi can be difficult even when a trucker is fully focused. A driver just beginning a day’s shift could easily fail to spot a person on foot if he or she was checking a GPS, calling a dispatcher or updating a manifest on a handheld computer.

State police do not have a good description of the semi, but they are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crash or know the identity of the at-fault driver to share their information by calling the Highway Patrol at (803) 896-9621 or (800) 768-1501. My Carolina wrongful death attorneys and I know how important tips from the public can prove in finding hit-and-run drivers and holding them to the account for the injuries, property damage and deaths they cause. Aside from resolving any criminal liability, settling insurance claims often becomes easier when the name and location of the person who caused a wreck are known.

EJL