A southbound Toyota Sienna minivan left Interstate 95 just before Exit 57, drove behind a guard rail ,and plummeted over the embankment crashing head-on on to Bells Hwy. below the Interstate. The August 23rd crash caused the van to overturn and receive heavy damage. The unrestrained occupants of the vehicle, four children and two adults from New Jersey were injured. One female child and an adult male received critical life-threatening injuries, and an adult female suffered serious injuries. The three other male children received multiple non-life-threatening injuries. Incredibly, the van did not strike any other vehicles on Bells Hwy. Initially calls reported several people injured, two Colleton County Fire-Rescue ambulances and Walterboro Fire Department responded to the incident. Due to of the number of patients involved in the incident, two additional ambulances were sent to the scene. All patients were treated at the scene by Firefighter-Paramedics. The adult female was transported to MUSC and the critically injured child was transported to Shawn Jenkins Children’s Trauma Center at MUSC. The other children were also transported to Shawn Jenkins by another Fire-Rescue ambulance. Westbound traffic on Bells Hwy. was disrupted for about an hour until the accident could be cleared. The SC Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. Walterboro Police assisted with traffic control at the busy interchange.
