20-year-old motorcyclist fleeing cops dies in crash in South Carolina, deputies say
A 20-year-old man from South Carolina died in a motorcycle crash after deputies say he evaded traffic stops.
On Aug. 15, Nevan Matthew Hopkins of West Union, South Carolina, died from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle crash, the Oconee County coroner said in a news release. The autopsy showed Hopkins died of blunt force chest and abdominal trauma in the Westminster crash, and the death was ruled accidental, the release says.
A South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper saw the motorcyclist traveling at a high rate of speed on Highway 123 and tried to initiate a traffic stop, deputies said. Hopkins sped up and put more distance between himself and the state trooper, according to the report.
The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office said Hopkins passed one of its deputies during the attempted stop, so the deputy turned on his lights and siren and joined the effort to pull Hopkins over. The state trooper canceled his traffic stop, the sheriff’s office said in a news release, while the deputy sped up and attempted to close the distance between himself and the motorcyclist.
The state trooper ordered the county deputy to stop the chase, and the deputy complied, according to the sheriff’s office.
The deputy last spotted Hopkins about a quarter-mile before the 20-year-old crashed, the news release said.
A man flagged down the deputy and alerted him of the crash a block away, authorities say. When the deputy arrived, he found Hopkins.
“Paramedics were called to the scene and deputies and paramedics initiated life saving measures, which included applying a tourniquet to the man’s right leg due to an injury and CPR,” the sheriff’s office said in the news release.
Hopkins was pronounced dead on scene at 1 a.m., the coroner said.
“Prayers for my family, and for the Hopkins family,” a family member wrote on Facebook. “Especially as we lost a great person too soon. Nevan Hopkins your legacy will live on.”
The Greenville County Sheriff’s Accident Investigation Team is looking into the incident.
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