Police chase leads to crash that kills 72-year-old in another car, SC coroner says
A South Carolina driver was in a police chase before a crash that killed a 72-year-old man riding in another car, officials said.
The driver reportedly was fleeing officers in a Ford pickup truck when he slammed into a Buick from behind. The crash sent the Buick veering off the pavement and into a road sign on Sunday, July 3, the S.C. Highway Patrol said in a news release.
A 72-year-old Buick passenger was flown to a hospital, where he died the next day. He was identified in a news release as Joseph Francis Gardner of Iva, a town roughly 45 miles southwest of Greenville.
The Anderson County coroner’s office said the crash happened just after 10:30 p.m. near Iva and along S.C. Highway 81.
Officers from the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office and the Iva Police Department were following the pickup truck while the driver was trying to get away from them, officials said. The pursuit reportedly went into Anderson County, the site of the crash.
After the crash, Gardner died of a “traumatic brain injury, due to blunt force trauma, secondary to a motor vehicle” collision, officials said.
The drivers of both vehicles were injured and taken to the hospital. A pickup truck passenger also was hurt, state troopers said.
An investigation into the crash was ongoing as of July 4, according to officials.
State troopers in their release referred questions about the events that happened before the crash to the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office, which didn’t immediately share additional information with McClatchy News on July 5.
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