Ridgeland man killed after truck flipped along I-95 in Easter Sunday crash, coroner says
Ridgeland man Stephen “Steve” Roberts, 59, was killed in a single-vehicle accident on Easter Sunday after his truck ran off the interstate.
About 10:45 p.m. March 31, Roberts was driving south on I-95 in a white 2006 Ford Ranger pickup. As he passed Exit 8, where the interstate intersects with U.S. 278 in northern Hardeeville, his truck left the roadway and flipped.
Roberts was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle, according to the Jasper County Coroner’s Office. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Friends and relatives will remember Roberts as a kindhearted family man and longtime parishioner at Ridgeland’s Great Swamp Baptist Church, according to his obituary. He enjoyed bowling, fishing and his career in steel construction, which he used to aid in volunteer projects around his church.
The crash remains under investigation by the Hardeeville Police Department and Jasper County Coroner’s Office. It was the ninth of 10 traffic-related fatalities in Beaufort and Jasper counties so far this year:
April 5: A 3-year-old boy crossing Bay Pines Road in Beaufort was struck by a pickup truck and died early the next morning. Feb. 28: Hardeeville man Nelson Espinoza-Flores drowned after his vehicle crashed into a retention pond in the RiverPort Commerce Park. Feb. 27: Daniel Cardenas-Andrade of Ridgeland was killed after his car struck a tree outside Yemassee.
Feb. 26: Bluffton man Jason Flack died in a hit-and-run while crossing Hilton Head’s Gumtree Road on foot.
Feb. 14: Beaufort teen Ethan Fish died when his motorcycle collided with a pickup truck on S.C. 170. Feb. 5: Three Savannah residents were killed after their car hydroplaned in southern Jasper County. Jan. 26: Hilton Head resident Gregory Parcella died after his Tesla struck a tree on Spanish Wells Road.
