Teen killed when truck carrying six runs off Midlands road, coroner says
A teenage girl was killed in a crash on a Midlands road that sent five others to an area hospital, the Kershaw County Coroner’s Office said.
Jessica Marie Ross was a passenger who was ejected from the truck and died in the collision, Coroner David West said in a news release.
The 17-year-old Lugoff girl died at the scene of the wreck, according to West.
The single-vehicle collision happened at about 5 p.m. Friday, South Carolina Highway Patrol reported.
A Z71 Chevrolet Tahoe ran off Three Branches Road in Lugoff and smashed into a ditch and flipped over, Cpl. Sonny Collins said. That’s about 20 miles from the intersection of Interstate 20 and Interstate 77.
The truck was speeding on the dirt road at the time the driver lost control and also hit a tree in the collision, West told The State. Ross was in the front passenger seat, Collins said.
None of the six occupants in the pickup truck, including Ross, wore a seat belt, according to Collins.
The driver and others were hurt and had to be taken to a hospital in Columbia, Collins said.
Information on their conditions was not available, but West said none of the injuries are considered life threatening.
A little more than a month into 2020, 67 people have died on South Carolina roads, according to the Department of Public Safety. Of those deaths, 53 of the victims had access to seat belts, and 29 were not wearing safety restraints, DPS said.
Information on possible criminal charges was not available, but the collision remains under investigation by Highway Patrol.
There was a search for Ross last August. The then-16-year-old was reported missing when she didn’t show up to school, or for work at a Firehouse Subs in Columbia, the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office said.
Ross was eventually located in Myrtle Beach — where her then boyfriend lived — after her vehicle was spotted, according to the sheriff’s office.
Her death was the third Kershaw County fatality that was the result of a collision in a 13 hour span.
A 60-year-old man and an 87-year-old woman died in a crash that happened around 4 a.m., West said. The man’s truck hit a bridge on Interstate 20 near the 96 mile marker, and when he got out to assess the damage his truck was struck by the woman’s car, knocking the truck into him, according to the coroner’s office.
Both Timothy Edward Rush, Camden, and Lucille Waine, Loris, died at the scene, West reported. That wreck is also still being investigated by the coroner’s office and Highway Patrol.
This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Teen killed when truck carrying six runs off Midlands road, coroner says."
