Woman killed in early morning wreck identified

MOUNT PLEASANT — A woman died and a man was injured after a car slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer on U.S. Highway 17 near S.C. Highway 41.

Authorities said the driver of the car was running from a police officer and was traveling on the wrong side of the highway when it slammed into the truck.

Mary Dew, 42, of Myrtle Beach, died as a result of blunt trauma injuries, Charleston County Deputy Coroner Brittney Martin said.

A 2002 Ford Taurus was traveling north in the southbound lanes of U.S. 17 about 2 a.m. when it struck the semi heading in the opposite direction, S.C. Highway Patrol Cpl. Paul Brouthers said.

Dew was a passenger in the Taurus. She was transported to a hospital where she later died, the deputy coroner said. The driver, 49-year-old Ricky Bostic of Myrtle Beach, was taken to Medical University Hospital, Brouthers said.

The Taurus was not being pursued at the time, Brouthers said.

A Mount Pleasant police officer first approached the Taurus at 1:42 a.m. at the Kangaroo gas station at 2846 U.S. 17 because the car had been parked there for more than an hour, according to an incident report.

The officer asked the driver if everything was OK and the driver responded that "We are getting everything worked out." The woman in the passenger seat was crying. She told the officer that she recently had surgery that nearly killed her, according to the report.

The driver then put the car in reverse and inched back. The officer told him to put it back into park but he rolled up his window and then abruptly backed up, nearly striking the officer's legs, according to the report.

The officer wrote that he didn't think the driver intentionally tried to strike him but ignored his commands to stop. The car screeched its tires and turned south on U.S. 17, the report says.

The officer radioed to dispatch a description of the car and the direction it was heading. As he got inside his car, the officer saw another patrol car with its lights on heading south on U.S. 17. The second officer radioed that the car had struck a tractor-trailer.

Capt. Stan Gragg said the Taurus went south on U.S. 17 when it saw the patrol car approaching from behind and did a U-turn shortly before crashing into the semi while heading northbound.

Officers responded to the crash. Multiple beer cans were in the back seat, the report says.

U.S. 17 was closed for more than five hours following the wreck. Authorities say the road is open again.