FAIRFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — The Fairfield County Coroner's Office has released the name of a man who died on Thursday in a fiery crash that, due to a chemical spill, shut down I-77 for several hours.
According to Fairfield County Coroner Chris Hill, 54-year-old Charles Wayne Hartley of Lancaster was driving the Chevrolet pick-up truck that collided with two tractor-trailers around 3:30 a.m. just south of the Peach Road exit to Ridgeway.
Hill said on Friday that his office, along with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, is still investigating the crash, which News19 previously learned involved at least one truck carrying ammonium sulfide.
The substance led to a hazardous chemical response and resulted in a precautionary shelter in place advisory across the immediate area and in nearby Ridgeway.
And while northbound lanes did reopen in the daylight hours that followed the crash, it wasn't until roughly 11 hours later that a single lane of I-77 South officially cleared allowing slow but steady travel through the area.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol said Hartley's pickup truck made an illegal lane change in front of two tractor-trailers and was struck by both. The pickup truck and one of the tractor-trailers then caught fire.