After a South Carolina State Trooper struck and killed a pedestrian last month, the ensuing investigation has concluded that the police officer involved in the pedestrian fatality was not at fault for the traffic accident.
Corporal Jonathan Jones was driving his police cruiser along Asheville Highway when he struck and killed Jeremiah Howell, who was attempting to cross the street. The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office says Jones was not injured in the pedestrian accident. In the wake of the pedestrian accident, Jones was placed on administrative leave until the accident reconstruction team pieced together the events of the night and reached a conclusion. The team of investigators will now notify the South Carolina Department of Public Safety of their findings and Jones will return to work.
According to the reconstruction team, South Carolina State Police investigators, and outside consultants, the fatal pedestrian collision was simply an accident. Among the evidence collected was that Howell was dressed all in black and was not readily visible; that he had several drugs in his system at the time of the accident, including marijuana and cocaine; and that witnesses reported that Howell was acting strangely in the street – perhaps stopping to tie his shoe or bend over.
Howell, a 30-year-old resident of Roebuck, was transported to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, where he later died.
The investigators also found that Jones was not going more than ten miles above the speed limit at the time of the pedestrian accident – he was probably traveling around 53 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone.