An adult male was critically injured, and a child was severely injured, when two parked vehicles were struck by a semi-truck near the 55-mile marker northbound Saturday morning, April 4th. The passenger cars were parked in the breakdown lane near the bridge entering the Great Swamp when they were struck in the rear by a semi-truck. One vehicle was thrown into the woods, while the other was pushed into the median side lane on the bridge. Both vehicles contained members of the same family. The adult male was standing outside of the vehicle when it was struck. He suffered multiple extensive injuries and was found unconscious at the scene. A 12-year-old female was inside the back seat of one of the passenger cars and received multiple injuries. An adult female and a small boy, in separate vehicles received non-life-threatening injuries. The semi-truck struck the bridge and went into the river beneath the bridge with the cab filling with water. The driver of the semi was not injured and able to safely exit the cab of the truck. Colleton County Firefighter-Paramedics began treating the critically injured man and requested a medical helicopter to respond to the scene. CARE Flight landed on the bridge and flew the man to the Trauma Center at Trident Hospital in North Charleston. Fire-Rescue transported the children and the adult female to the Shawn Jenkins Children’s Trauma Center at MUSC. I-95 northbound was closed for several hours until the accident could be cleared. All traffic was rerouted through Walterboro for most of the Saturday morning. The accident is being investigated by the South Carolina Highway
