RICHBURG, S.C. — It happened four years ago on a day as sunny and warm as the one today.
But it ended much differently – 10 people injured, five had to flown by helicopter to the hospital and two people died on I-77 after a deadly car accident involving several vehicles.
Four years later, first responders and witnesses say the memories from that scene still haunt them.
I-77 has seen many, many accidents, the one that happened on Sept. 1, 2016 by exit 65 –
is one the Richburg Fire Department can’t forget —
“It’s one of those things that you don’t get over. Time doesn’t heal some of the things you see.” // T. Melton
T. Melton with the Richburg Fire Department was one of the first firefighters to arrive on scene -.
He describes it as a war-zone that started when a tractor trailer rear-ended another car – causing a chain reaction.
“We received every form of emergency during that call – we had fire, we had wrecks with entrapment, we had ejections, we had fatalities.” // T. Melton
Two people died that day. Rick Staton was driving a tanker truck that also got banged up.
He remembers an infant being thrown out of a car while still in the car seat. Miraculously – that baby survived.
“It was hard getting back into the truck after that happened. Just thinking about that, seeing that,” he said.
Stanton says that awful day gave him a new appreciation for first responders. He’s still friends with T. Melton and others at the Richburg Fire Department.
“I mean they did a fantastic job. If I lived in Richburg, I’d definitely volunteer for them. very very compassionate fire department,” Staton said.
T. Melton says many people stopped to help and several agencies responded to assist.
“We had a lot of people that stopped – that had no experience whatsoever and they tried to help,” T Melton said. “And it’s very nice that there are people that still care about others.”
And that’s the small silver lining – that in the worst times, people stepped up to help.
