A pedestrian died Monday night after being struck by two vehicles on U.S. Highway 321 in Richland County, with the crash happening near Sharpe Road around 6:20 p.m. The pedestrian had been walking north in the southbound lane when a southbound 2025 Nissan Sentra and a northbound 2021 Mazda CX-9 both hit them. They died from their injuries at the scene.
According to WIS News 10, the victim's identity had not been released as of the report, and the South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
Separate coverage from ABC Columbia reported that both drivers involved were unharmed. That outlet's account of how the crash unfolded came from Lance Corporal Brittany Glover.
A Dangerous Stretch of Road
A Dangerous Stretch of Road This isn't the first deadly crash reported near that same stretch of U.S. 321. On April 1, 2022, a man died in a hit-and-run crash in the northbound lane of U.S. 321/Fairfield Road near the intersection with Sharpe Road, struck by a vehicle that fled the scene around 3 a.m., according to a report from The State. That crash remains a separate, unrelated incident, but it underscores how often pedestrians have been hit along that corridor.
Richland County has seen a steady toll of road deaths this year. At least 42 people had died in county crashes in 2026 as of recent reporting, compared with 48 people who died in wrecks there in 2025, per the same account from The State. A separate crash on I-26 in the county also killed a pedestrian who was struck by a tractor trailer while crossing the eastbound lanes, that outlet reported.
Pedestrian Deaths Climbing Statewide
South Carolina's pedestrian fatality numbers have been trending in a troubling direction. Between 2019 and 2023, the state averaged 184 fatal and 205 serious-injury pedestrian crashes each year, and fatal pedestrian crashes increased over that period even as serious-injury crashes slightly decreased, according to a factsheet from the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The state ranked third nationally in pedestrian fatality rate per capita in 2023, the agency's data shows.
Nighttime conditions were a factor in the vast majority of these crashes statewide, with 87% of pedestrian fatal crashes and 68% of pedestrian serious-injury crashes occurring after dark, per the same SCDOT factsheet. The leading contributing factors identified in the data were pedestrians lying or illegally in the roadway, accounting for 37.8% of cases, and improper crossing, at 15.9%. Crashes also overlapped most often with young drivers, intersections, speeding, and older drivers, the agency found.
Through September 27 of this year, at least 654 people had died on South Carolina roads, The State reported. The toll has climbed in recent years: Through the Friday before its April 5, 2022, publication, 233 people had died on South Carolina roads, including 35 pedestrians, and in 2021, 195 pedestrians were among 1,192 total road deaths statewide, according to that outlet's prior reporting. At least 16 people died in Richland County crashes in 2022 alone, five of them pedestrians.
No further details about the Monday crash, including the identities of those involved or the outcome of the Highway Patrol's investigation, have been released.
