ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating following the pursuit of a stolen vehicle in Orangeburg that ended in a deadly crash on Wednesday afternoon.
Lance Corporal Tyler Tidwell said the crash happened around 4 p.m. when a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado was attempting to escape from police. Reports provided by the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety suggest that the vehicle in question had been spotted by license plate cameras and had been reported stolen a day earlier from the House of Pizza on John C. Calhoun Drive.
A police sergeant was the first to receive the alert and warned the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office that the vehicle may soon head into their jurisdiction. However, the sergeant said in his report that he soon came upon the stolen pickup truck himself as he approached while driving an unmarked department vehicle near the intersection of Chestnut and Broughton streets.
The sergeant said he then relayed his position to other officers as the stolen vehicle then reentered city territory. The sergeant continued to follow and eventually attempted a traffic stop.
However, it was at this point that the stolen truck began its attempts to escape. Other officers soon joined the sergeant in the pursuit with the vehicle getting far enough ahead at times that the sergeant lost sight of it.
Other officer reports suggest the driver also moved into oncoming traffic and drove through multiple intersections along Chestnut Road. But the chase eventually came to an end when the stolen truck lost control and slammed into the back of another vehicle near the Sia Mart convenience store parking lot not far from Russell Street and Belleville Road.
Police said that officers were able to remove and detain a juvenile from the passenger side but ultimately found the driver, also a juvenile, to be unresponsive and eventually declared deceased.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol reports that the passenger's injuries and the injuries of the driver of the other vehicle were both considered minor. However, the stolen vehicle was reported back to the owner as a total loss.
