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3-month-old child dies after pileup crash in South Carolina, coroner says

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Posted at 4:45 PM, Apr 05, 2024
and last updated 2024-04-05 16:45:04-04

ANDERSON COUNTY, South Carolina (WYFF) — The South Carolina Highway Patrol on Friday released new information about a multi-vehicle crash that the coroner said left a child dead.

Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said a 3-month-old child, identified as Jakai Govan, of Anderson, died just after 1 a.m. Friday as a result of the Thursday afternoon crash on Highway 29.

Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway said the crash happened about 1:45 p.m. on Highway 29 near Welcome Road, north of Williamston.

Sky 4 flew over the area around 2:15 p.m. Watch the video above.

The video showed several vehicles involved in a crash and an overturned concrete truck with spilled concrete.

Ridgeway said a 2006 Dodge pickup truck was headed south on Highway 29 and was stopped in traffic.

Shore said the vehicles were stopped due to road work in the area.

He said a 2013 Chevy sedan was also headed south on Highway 29 and was stopped behind the pickup.

Ridgeway said a 2018 Terex concrete truck hit the Chevy sedan from behind, which caused the sedan to hit the pickup in the rear.

Shore said the concrete truck was traveling too fast for conditions when it hit the back of the sedan he identified as a Chevy Impala.

"The impact caused the cement truck to overturn down an embankment and pushed the Chevy Impala into the back of a Dodge Pickup truck which then caused a pile-up effect," Shore said.

He said the child was restrained in a car seat and had to be extricated from the Impala before being airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

"The cause of death has been determined as a subdural hemorrhage secondary to a skull fracture," Shore said, calling the manner of death accidental.

Ridgeway said the driver of the sedan, from Anderson, was also taken by helicopter to the same hospital. No information was released about the driver's condition.

The family of the driver of the pickup, from Anderson, said he had to be extricated from the wreck and was taken by ambulance to the hospital with back and neck injuries.

The driver of the concrete truck, from Honea Path, was not injured, Ridgeway said.