MARCH 22, 2015
FLORENCE, S.C.
Five people died in a fiery multi-vehicle crash Saturday
night on Interstate 95 Florence County.
That total was confirmed Sunday morning in a release issued
by Florence County Coroner Keith von Lutcken.
The identities of the victims will be released later Sunday.
Autopsies will be conducted on all of the victims at MUSC.
The incident is under investigation by the S.C. Highway
Patrol and the Florence County Coroner's Office, von Lutcken said.
One of the fatalities was a baby, according to a Morning
News journalist on the scene.
The crash occurred in the northbound lanes of I-95 just
before the 170 mile marker, the exit for S.C. 327, at around 7:30 p.m.,
according to Cpl. Sonny Collins with the SCHP.
Law enforcement and first responders began diverting all
northbound traffic at mile marker 169 after the collision.
At least one car, mostly burned, was pinned beneath a
tractor-trailer. Another car sat, fully burned, close by. A second tractor-trailer,
slightly further up the highway, also sustained damage, and possibly collided
with a fourth consumer vehicle, a pickup truck.
Vahid Hamzehnava was in a vehicle not far behind where the
accident happened.
"I tried to slow down with the flow of traffic and all
of a sudden it just happened," Hamzehnava said. "When I got here I
saw the truck driver get out of the car, and he thought the truck was going to
explode, so he ran down the highway. And then after a couple of seconds they
said, ‘move the car, move the car.’ Everybody started backing up. And the whole
truck got on fire."
He and another witness tried running toward the accident to
assist trapped passengers.
"We tried," he said. "There was nothing him
and I could do."