MARCH 22, 2015
FLORENCE, S.C.
Update
The five victims that died in a collision on Interstate 95
have been identified.
A five-vehicle accident on I-95 northbound at Exit 170 in
Florence County killed five people Saturday night, according to Florence County
Coroner Keith von Lutcken.
According to von Lutcken, the victims traveling in the 2011
Jeep Cherokee were Jacqueline McCann, 51, and Barry Hines, 52, both from
Johnstown, PA.
Jeremiah Cross, 34, Crystal Cross, 32, and 7-month-old
Grayson Cross, all from Ontario Canada, were the victims traveling in a 2008
Honda, according to von Lutcken.
The incident occurred at about 7:37 p.m. on Interstate 95
northbound, according to SCHP. Two commercial vehicles were among the five
involved, Cpl. Sonny Collins with South Carolina Highway Patrol
confirmed.
//-------------------------------//
Cars burst into flames in a five-vehicle crash in South
Carolina that left five people dead and snarled interstate traffic for hours,
authorities and witnesses said.
The crash involving two commercial trucks happened Saturday
night around 7:30 p.m. in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Florence
County, said State Highway Patrol Cpl. Sonny Collins. The northbound lanes were
closed for hours afterward.
Florence County Coroner Keith von Lutcken said that five
people died in the crash but didn't immediately release names or ages. Collins
said he's not aware of injuries beyond those who were killed.
Media photos from the scene show two tractor-trailers and
wreckage of other vehicles.
The Morning News of Florence reported that one mostly burned
car was pinned under a tractor-trailer, and nearby another car was "fully
burned." It said a second tractor-trailer was damaged.
Collins said he couldn't provide further details of what led
to the crash and that it could be days before investigators release a cause.
Witness Vahid Hamzehnava told the Morning News he was a few
cars back when he saw the accident happen.
"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 ... and he thought the truck was going to explode,
so he ran down the highway."
Hamzehnava said he and another witness ran toward the
wreckage to try helping passengers but weren't able.
"We tried," he said. "There was nothing him
and I could do."
//----------------------------------------------//
Authorities say a fiery five-vehicle crash along Interstate
95 in South Carolina killed five people and snarled traffic for hours.
State Highway Patrol Cpl. Sonny Collins says the crash
happened Saturday night in the northbound lanes of the interstate in Florence
County and involved two commercial trucks.
Florence County Coroner Keith von Lutcken told multiple
media outlets that five people died in the crash. Collins says he's not aware
of injuries beyond those who were killed.
The northbound lanes were closed for hours afterward.
The Morning News of Florence posted a photo of a
tractor-trailer with the wreckage of another vehicle. The newspaper reported
that two cars caught fire, with one pinned under a tractor-trailer, and that
another tractor-trailer was damaged.
Collins says that it could be days before investigators
release a cause.
//------------------------------------//
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2015/03/united-states-still-has-one-of-highest.html
UNITED STATES STILL HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST ROAD ACCIDENT DEATH AND INJURY RATES: 34,000 DIE AND 2.5 MILLION INJURED EACH YEAR.
Despite the improvements in road safety, the United States has
one of the highest death rates at about 1 person dead per 10,000 people. Unfortunately,
only undeveloped countries have higher death rate.
Some states, such as Texas and West Virginia (sorry, WV,
despite your tremendous progress in traffic safety, you are still at the top of
the worst-death-rate list) have death rates of nearly 1.5 percent, i.e., fifty
percent more people die compared to the national death rate.
Approximately 34,000 people are getting killed each
year. In the 1950s and 1960s, about 55,000 people used to die on the
roads – so, there has been improvement in the number of dead.
However, the number of injured is rising. Roughly 2.5
million are injured (yes, you read it correctly – 2.5 million injured) per
year. That is, 1 percent (1%) of the population that is eligible to drive
is injured every year.
It is worse than a war zone out there. So, please be
safe and look around for crazy drivers, reckless drivers, sick drivers,
medical-condition drivers, sleepy drivers, negligent drivers, stupid drivers,
careless drivers, drunk drivers, speeding drivers, drugged drivers, texting
drivers, talking-on-the-phone drivers, looking-at-the-GPS drivers, hurry-hurry
drivers, tailgating drivers, upset drivers, eating-while-driving drivers,
putting-the-lipstick-on-while-driving drivers, and so on.