Pedestrian Got Killed After Getting Out of His Car, Triggering a Pileup

What Happened

According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, a driver was involved in an earlier single-vehicle crash on I-26 East near mile marker 31. He got out of his car and, while standing on the interstate, was struck by a Toyota sedan traveling eastbound. He died at the scene. His identity has not been released pending further investigation and notification of next of kin.

That collision triggered a broader multi-vehicle pileup. Buckcherry's tour bus, traveling the same stretch of highway after the band's Thursday night performance in North Carolina, was drawn into the chain-reaction crash that followed. The band confirmed in a statement that "at approximately 2:00 AM Friday morning, Buckcherry's tour bus was involved in a multi-vehicle accident on I-26 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina," adding, "tragically, authorities have confirmed that the collision that occurred ahead of our bus resulted in a fatality. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the family and loved ones of the person who lost their life." 

All band members and touring crew were confirmed safe and unharmed. All eastbound lanes of I-26 were closed for several hours while the scene was cleared, reopening around 10:30 AM. The band's scheduled performance the following night in Fort Lauderdale went ahead as planned.

A Highway With a Recent, Troubling Pattern

This is not an isolated incident on this stretch of road. Just days earlier, on Thursday, August 20, 80-year-old Willie Jernell Keaton was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while crossing I-26 near mile marker 1 in the same county, marking the second pedestrian fatality on I-26 in Spartanburg County within roughly a week. Two pedestrian deaths on the same interstate corridor in such a short window is a pattern worth taking seriously, and it raises real questions for South Carolina transportation officials about visibility, shoulder conditions, and driver behavior along this stretch of highway.

Why Getting Out of Your Car on a Highway Is So Dangerous

The man's death illustrates one of the most under-discussed dangers in roadway safety: what happens after the initial crash. Once a vehicle is disabled on an active interstate, especially at night, the person standing beside it becomes far more vulnerable than they were inside the car moments earlier. Interstate shoulders are typically narrow, poorly lit at 2 AM, and offer little separation from live traffic moving at highway speeds. A driver approaching a disabled vehicle in the dark has only seconds to perceive a person standing in or near the roadway, and by the time headlights reveal them, there is often no time to react.

Safety officials generally recommend that after a crash on a highway, occupants should move as far from the roadway as safely possible, ideally beyond the guardrail, rather than standing near the vehicle or in a travel lane, and should turn on hazard lights and, if available, set out road flares or triangles well behind the disabled vehicle. None of this is a judgment on what happened in this specific case, since the full circumstances of why the man exited his vehicle and where he was standing haven't been detailed publicly. It is, however, a pattern seen repeatedly in secondary highway fatalities nationwide.

The Legal Layers in a Chain-Reaction Crash

Multi-vehicle pileups like this one often involve layered liability that can take investigators weeks to sort out. The driver who caused the original single-vehicle crash may bear some responsibility for creating the hazardous situation in the first place. The driver of the Toyota that struck the pedestrian will be evaluated for whether they had a reasonable opportunity to see and avoid him. And any vehicles drawn into the resulting pileup, including Buckcherry's bus, will need to be assessed individually for whether their drivers responded reasonably to a suddenly disabled roadway ahead of them.

For touring crews and bus operators caught in incidents like this, commercial vehicle involvement adds another layer of complexity, since bus operators are typically held to elevated safety and following-distance standards given the vehicle's size and stopping distance. Nothing in current reporting suggests Buckcherry's bus was found at fault, but any investigation into a commercial vehicle's role in a pileup will scrutinize following distance, driver hours of service, and response time as a matter of course.

Our condolences go out to the family of the man who lost his life on I-26 early Friday morning.

If you've been injured in a similar crash on a highway, the independent attorneys we connect you with can help you sort out liability across every driver involved and pursue the compensation you're owed.

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