On July 18, 2008, a South Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC) van was legally parked in the emergency lane on Interstate 85 in Anderson County while inmates were being transported to do trash removal. A tractor-trailer truck drifted into the emergency lane, getting into a commercial truck accident with the DOC van.

The van was pushed onto the shoulder of the road, while the tractor-trailer truck moved into the median before rupturing a gas tank and causing a grass fire. The van’s main exit door was blocked by a guardrail, prompting emergency personnel to cut the roof off of the van to extract the injured people.

One corrections officer and four inmates were transported to an area hospital for non-life threatening injuries sustained in the tractor-trailer truck accident. The driver of the tractor-trailer truck was cited for driving too fast for conditions.

Source: “I-85 Wreck Injures Inmates, Starts Grass Fire,” WYFF4.com, July 18, 2008.