UPDATED: Victim In Deadly I-20 Crash In Aiken County Identified

By Randy Key

Published: October 9, 2008

North Augusta, SC—Traffic is moving again on I-20, in Aiken County…

The westbound lanes between mile markers 6 and 7 were shut down around 9:00 p.m., Wednesday night, and remained closed for 10 hours, after a deadly three vehicle accident.

In a release, Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton has identified the victim as Jose Hector Gonzales-Hernandez, 31, of North Charleston, SC. Gonzales-Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr. Hernandez was the driver of a 1998 International refrigerated box truck carrying produce. He was traveling eastbound toward Columbia when the vehicle crossed into the median, bounding the retainer wires and was struck by a westbound 1998 Peterbilt tractor-trailor driven by Sylvester Taylor.

The collision completely dislodged the front end of Mr. Hernandez’s vehicle. An eastbound Nissan SUV, driven by Brad Pritchett, of Graniteville, SC also entered the median and overturned after being stopped by the retaining wires.

It is not not clear at this time what the sequence of events were.

The surviving drivers in this crash were transported to Medical College of Georgia with non-life threatening injuries. A significant downpour of rain may have contributed to this crash.

I-20 was shut down for several hours due to the catastrophic nature of this crash.

Mr. Hernandez is the 27th traffic fatality in Aiken County this year.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol continues to investigate this crash.

Toxicology is pending.

Mr. Hernandez was pronounced dead at approximately 10:20 p.m., and died from muliple body trauma.