The Highway Patrol's special investigation team will be revisiting scenes of the two head-on collisions that claimed five lives in less than eight hours on Upstate roads Tuesday. (( The MAIT unit -- that's M-A-I-T for "Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team" -- is typically assigned to sort out the fatal factors in some of the worst traffic disasters.)) They're examining details of the first and deadliest of yesterday's (Tuesday's) collisions. It happened at 9:45 a.m. just over the Laurens County line near Fountain Inn. A Lincoln sedan troopers say crossed the centerline of Highway 418 struck a Honda Accord head-on at the intersection with Scuffletown Road. Three people died at the scene; 79-year old Crystal Swann from Fountain Inn, 76-year-old Karen Lockamy and 18-year-old Evan McNeely from Greenville. A fourth victim, 20-year-old Kevin Marin from Greer died after being airlifted to the hospital. Autopsies are ordered on all of them.
The second fatal crash happened in Travelers Rest around 5 PM Tuesday. The driver who died in the crash, has been identified as 55 year old, Claude Earl Jones. The Patrol says a Nissan sedan driven by the victim who died at the scene of the wreck, was hit by a Toyota that crossed the centerline of Belvue Road near Highway 25. The two people in the Toyota are in the hospital.
