WINNSBORO – Two people were pronounced dead at the scene and a third victim died hours later after a head-on collision on I-77 early Thursday morning in Fairfield County. The collision happened just after 2:30 a.m. Thursday approximately 5 miles east of Winnsboro near mile marker 41. Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash.
Takeya Taylor, 28, of 94 Hedgerow Court in Columbia and Lisa Denise Jefferson, 48, of 927 Hillsboro Drive in Charleston, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey said. Wallace Green Jr., 46, of Greensboro, N.C., died at approximately 9 a.m. Thursday at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital from injuries sustained in the crash, Ramsey said.
According to the S.C. Highway Patrol, Taylor, who turned 28 Thursday, was driving a 2003 Mitsubishi north in the southbound lane of I-77. Near mile marker 41, she slammed head-on into a Hyundai Sonata driven by Jefferson. Jefferson was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash and was trapped inside the car. Taylor, who was also not wearing a seat belt, was partially ejected from the Mitsubishi and entrapped. Ramsey said it took rescue workers at least an hour to extract the victims from the wreckage.
Green, a passenger in the back seat of Jefferson’s Sonata, was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident and was transported by ambulance to Palmetto Richland. A passenger in the front seat, Edward Singleton, 52, also of Charleston, remained in the hospital at press time with non-life-threatening injuries. Singleton had been wearing a seat belt, the Highway Patrol said.
A toxicology report had not been completed at press time, but Ramsey said Taylor had reportedly been drinking at a bar in Richland County earlier that evening. The accident remains under investigation by the S.C. Highway Patrol.
