Mike Costanzo served with the Charleston County Sheriff's Office from 1995 to 2006 and returned in 2017. On July 1, 2020, a four-vehicle crash on the Don Holt Bridge left him with multiple broken bones, a crushed hip and a traumatic brain injury, and killed tow-truck driver William Ellis, who was knocked over the side of the bridge. In the years after the crash, Costanzo became involved in coaching and mentoring.
The crash that nearly killed Costanzo also claimed Ellis's life after he was pushed over the side of the bridge, according to counton2.com, which reported that Costanzo was pinned between one of the vehicles and the side of the bridge, leaving him with multiple breaks to his back, leg, ankle and shoulder. The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the probable cause of the crash was the pickup truck driver's inattention to the driving task, likely due to fatigue. A separate 2021 investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol found that the driver, Dale Phillips, was not distracted or impaired at the time of the collision, as reported by abcnews4.com.
In the immediate aftermath, Costanzo was transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for brain-injury rehabilitation, according to a report from live5news.com. Nearly six months after the crash, he had learned to walk again and was working with physical therapists to rebuild his strength, the Post and Courier reported at the time. His recovery eventually spanned several years, and the brain injury left him with lasting problems with memory recall and the processing of information, per the same account.
Coaching and Mentoring
Costanzo has said the accident positively affected his children.
Costanzo also contributes as an instructor to Charleston Police Department recruits.
Mentoring Others
Costanzo has been involved in mentoring, alongside his coaching.
He coaches baseball and helps with a local travel team.
Family and Community
His daughter attended nursing school and now works in the MUSC neuro ICU.
He has said he has always enjoyed seeing other people succeed in life, a sentiment that now runs through his coaching, his lectures and his mentoring work.
The crash that upended Costanzo's life also led to a lawsuit filed by the estate of Will Ellis. Costanzo's own story, meanwhile, became the subject of a 299-page book written with Becky Mayberry, as the Post and Courier's Moultrie News previously reported, chronicling his path from a near-fatal bridge crash to a life centered on mentorship and service.
