Coroner identifies victims from crashes along I-85 in Cherokee Co.

CHEROKEE COUNTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Cherokee County Coroner’s Office confirmed two people died this afternoon following two crashes along I-85 South in Cherokee County.

Officials said the first crash happened at around 4:30 p.m. at mile marker 106. According to Coroner Dennis Fowler, the victim was traveling along I-85 south when she drove to the left and hit a concrete wall before going back to the right into the path of a tractor-trailer.

Fowler stated that the tractor-trailer hit the victim’s car, trapping them inside the vehicle with a passenger. The passenger was taken to the hospital for treatment. However, the driver, 56-year-old Leigh Ann Hamilton Marshall from Sullivans Island, sadly passed away at the scene. Fowler added that the current condition of the passenger is unknown.

The second crash happened minutes after at 4:35 p.m. near mile marker 106. Fowler said a box truck had stopped in traffic for the first crash when a different tractor-trailer hit it in the rear and dragged it “several hundred feet” before the driver realized the box truck was underneath.

The driver of the box truck, 25-year-old Timothy McNeil of Charlotte, North Carolina, was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger inside the box truck was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers said I-85 South reopened Thursday night after the crash shut it down for over an hour.

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