LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — The Lexington County coroner, on Sunday evening, identified two drivers who died earlier that day in the pre-dawn hours as a result of a wrong-way crash on I-26.
Coroner Margaret Fisher said that, around 5:30 a.m., two vehicles collided on the interstate near mile marker 119. Fisher said that 34-year-old Christian D. Lucille of Columbia was traveling in the wrong direction on the interstate when she struck an eastbound vehicle head-on.
That second vehicle was driven by 17-year-old Sierra S. Rosario of Blythewood. Both died at the scene, according to Fisher.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol is still investigating the crash and trying to determine exactly how it happened - and how Lucille ended up driving the wrong way on the interstate. So far, the highway patrol has released few details beyond the initial findings at the scene. The agency made no mention of passengers or any other injuries in this particular accident.
The crash and the investigation that followed shut down eastbound lanes of I-26 in Lexington County for roughly four hours with the roadway being reopened around 9:30 a.m.
It was the second deadly accident on the same section of interstate in a matter of hours. According to investigators, a man was hit while recovering an item from the roadway just after midnight the same day. That happened roughly five miles away - also in the eastbound lanes, according to data released by the highway patrol which is also investigating that crash.