CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - The son of a wrong-way driver who was killed in a crash that injured South Carolina congressional candidate Katie Arrington told deputies his mother had trouble seeing at night, according to an incident report released Wednesday.
The report from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy spoke with the son of 69-year-old Helen White shortly after Friday night’s crash. The report says Samuel White told the deputy that his mother had just left a family home. Samuel White said his mother was to let relatives know she had made it home.
According to the report, Helen White was taking the most direct route between the family home and her residence.
The sheriff’s office said Helen White had been in a hit-and-run accident just a few minutes before hitting the car in which Arrington was riding as a passenger.
The occupants of the first car that White hit said they were turning left from the southbound lanes onto S.C. Highway 174 when another car made a very wide right turn onto U.S. 17 and hit the rear of their vehicle, then continued. No one was injured in that collision.
Police said White went on to drive the wrong way on U.S. 17 and slam head-on into the car in which Arrington was riding.
Arrington, who had recently defeated incumbent Mark Sanford in a Republican primary was critically injured. So was the woman driving Arrington, Jacqueline Goff
In November, Arrington faces construction lawyer and yoga studio owner Joe Cunningham, who won the Democratic nomination.
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