Trapped in crashed truck for hours, Midlands man dies following wreck, coroner says

A Midlands man was killed following a Sunday morning crash where he was stuck in a pickup truck for hours before being discovered.

Tobias M. Sanders died after the 33-year-old Camden resident was taken to a Prisma Health hospital in Richland County, according to Kershaw County Coroner David West.

Sometime between midnight and 1 a.m., Sanders was driving a 1995 Ford pickup east on Mt. Zion Road when the truck ran off the road and crashed into a tree, said Sgt. Sonny Collins of South Carolina Highway Patrol. That’s near Goodale State Park, about 8 miles outside of Camden.

The single-vehicle collision was not discovered until about 8 a.m., according to Collins.

A 911 call was made reporting the wreck and Sanders was taken by EMS to the hospital in Columbia, where he died shortly after arriving, West said.

The coroner said Sanders was the only person in the truck, and no other injuries were reported by Highway Patrol.

Sanders was not wearing a seat belt, according to Collins.

Information on what caused the truck to veer off the road was not made available, but the collision continues to be investigated by Highway Patrol.

Through Friday afternoon, 110 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2021, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Of those, 82 of the victims had access to seat belts, but 46 were not wearing them, DPS reported.

There have been at least four people killed in Kershaw County crashes in 2021, and seat belts were not used in two of the deadly collisions, DPS reported.

Overall, 1,025 people died on South Carolina roads in 2020, DPS reported. Of those, 695 had access to seat belts, but 347 were not wearing them, according to DPS.