A pedestrian was struck and killed by a semi-truck while crossing the road at York Street and Rutland Drive in Aiken Saturday afternoon. The person was taken to Aiken Regional Medical Centers for treatment but did not survive.
Timeline of the Crash and Response
The crash happened around 2:45 p.m. Saturday, according to WJBF, which reported that the pedestrian was crossing the road when they were hit by a semi-truck. EMS crews transported the victim to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead at 3:23 p.m., the station reported. The Aiken Standard similarly reported that the incident occurred at 2:44 p.m., attributing the timeline to the Aiken County Coroner's Office.
The victim's identity has not been released. Per the station's report, the name will be made public only after family members have been notified. Both the Aiken Department of Public Safety and the Aiken County Coroner's Office are investigating the crash, and an autopsy is scheduled for next week in Newberry, the same report notes.
A Stretch of Road With a Troubled History
The intersection of York Street and Rutland Drive has been the site of fatal pedestrian crashes before. A 58-year-old man died after being hit by a vehicle near York Street Northeast and Rutland Drive, according to WACH, in a crash that station reported happened around 7:39 p.m. on a Friday and involved a 2015 Nissan Altima. Elsewhere along York Street, a 56-year-old Aiken man, James Hicks, was struck and killed while crossing on his bicycle, first hit by a southbound vehicle and thrown into the northbound lane before being struck and pinned by a second car, according to the Aiken Standard.
South Carolina's Pedestrian Safety Problem
Saturday's crash adds to a pattern that state transportation officials have flagged as a persistent safety concern. South Carolina averaged roughly 1,209 total pedestrian crashes a year between 2019 and 2023, including an annual average of 184 fatal and 205 serious-injury pedestrian crashes, according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The agency's data show fatal pedestrian crashes increased over that period even as serious-injury crashes slightly declined, and more than 18% of all fatal crashes statewide involved a pedestrian.
The transportation department's figures also show that 87% of pedestrian fatal crashes and 68% of serious-injury pedestrian crashes occurred at night, and that Saturdays saw more pedestrian fatal-and-serious-injury crashes than any other day of the week, with 346 recorded from 2019 through 2023. South Carolina ranked third nationally in pedestrian fatality rate per capita in 2023, per the same agency data.
Other fatal pedestrian and roadway crashes have been reported elsewhere in the Midlands this year. Carla Garvin, 46, was killed May 1 in Aiken when her Kia Sorento was struck head-on by a Ford F-150 turning into a private driveway on Whiskey Road, according to The State. The same report noted that Mark Bartholomew Mack, 49, of Gaston, died April 14 after being struck while walking in the southbound lanes of U.S. 321 in Lexington County, and that a pedestrian fueling a disabled vehicle on Interstate 26 in Richland County was struck and killed May 9 by a van that left the roadway.
