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A Belmont pastor driving his church van home from a golf trip was killed and seven were seriously injured Saturday in a three-vehicle wreck in Lancaster County.
The Lancaster Coroner's Office did not immediately identify the dead man, but members of Southpoint Free Will Baptist Church identified him as the Rev. Ronnie Wilson, who has led the congregation since 1999 and helped construct a new church building in 2005.
A deacon at the church told News Channel 36, the Observer's news partner, that Wilson and four other men were coming back from a golf trip in Myrtle Beach when they got into the wreck.
Six people were flown to Carolinas Medical Center, and one was taken to the Charlotte hospital by ambulance.
The wreck happened around 4:20 p.m. on S.C. 903, about 50 miles southeast of uptown Charlotte, said Lancaster Deputy Coroner Marie Broome.
She said she could not release the name of the dead person because the next-of-kin had not been officially notified. Investigators were still trying to identify and notify the family members of the other men in the church van.
According to Lance Cpl. Jeff Gaskin of the S.C. Highway Patrol, the man who was killed was driving a 2004 Chevy passenger van headed west. Troopers were still investigating what happened when the van collided with a 2000 Ford pickup and a 1995 Ford 150 pickup pulling a utility trailer.
The two people inside the 2000 Ford weren't wearing seat belts, and both men – Moses Waiters, 60, and 51-year-old Charles Taylor – were thrown from the truck. They were both flown to Carolinas Medical Center.
Investigators identified the man in the truck that was pulling the trailer as 64-year-old Roy Hardis, of York, S.C.
Officers haven't identified the passenger in his truck, but both were wearing seatbelts, and neither was transported to a hospital. WCNC-TV contributed.
