Hilton Head mourns the loss of a “heartbeat” of the community after fatal hit-and-run
In the early morning hours of February 25, a hit-and-run collision on Hilton Head Island took the life of Jason Flack, 45, of Bluffton. Flack’s death would send ripples across the Hilton Head and Bluffton communities as the spiderweb of people who loved him found out about his passing.
Originally from Pittsburgh, the owner of the electrical company, Innovative Electrical Concepts, moved to Bluffton in 2001.
If he wasn’t working, Flack was fishing, hunting, playing hockey for his team, the Silver Knights, in Savannah. He was also known for spending time with friends at the Skull Creek Boathouse. His loved ones said that most people fell in love with Flack the first time they met him. He would make a friend wherever he went, without fail.
“Jason wasn’t my best friend. Jason was everybody’s best friend,” said Chris Walton.
“Before the end of the day, he had a new friend. And that wasn’t just like an acquaintance. I mean, he had their phone number. He texted them, he called them.” Walton added.
When asked, his friends racked their brains to think of anyone who didn’t like Jason, to no avail.
“Jason was always happy,” Brett Lance said. “I don’t remember a single time that he was ever down in the dumps.”
With long curly hair, covered in tattoos and rarely seen without a boat shirt and flip flops on, Flack had a look that matched his distinct personality.
“I was like ‘Are you feeling okay?’” Joe Cox said about the one time he saw Flack in work boots.
Flack was engaged to Wendy Bader. The two began their relationship in late 2020 and got engaged nearly two years later in 2022. Both had been previously married and each with children from their previous marriages. Flack’s daughter, Amara Kendall, is 26 years old with two kids. Bader’s daughter, Brielle Bader, is 12 years old.
Bader said Flack’s magnanimous nature was more than you could ask for in a blended family. He had a close relationship with not only Brielle but her father as well.
“She says, ‘Mommy, no one’s gonna know the relationship that we got,’” Bader said. “Her volleyball jersey is number seven and he’d always said ‘You’re number seven on that jersey and number one on my heart.’”
Without fail, at the end of the day, Flack would say goodbye in the same way. “He would look you in the eyes and say, ‘Hey, glad you got to see me today,’” Walton said.
Flack was walking home from the Boathouse the night he was struck crossing the street. Bader said she was asked if she’d like to place a cross near the traffic circle to honor Flack. Instead, she elected to have an anchor placed there, feeling it was more in line with what he would have wanted.
Bader hopes to have the anchor as a permanent fixture at the traffic circle.
Accused driver of the hit-and-run vehicle is Sylvia Nelanader, 61 of Hilton Head. She was arrested Thursday by the South Carolina Highway Patrol
