Burns, smoke killed 4 of 5

Burns and smoke inhalation killed four of the five victims of the fiery, eight-car pileup in rush-hour traffic Friday on the entrance ramp to the Mark Clark Expressway, Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said Sunday.

Blunt-force head and chest trauma was the cause of death for Gary Gross, 45, of Moncks Corner, the only victim who could be positively identified through fingerprints, Wooten said.

The other victims have been tentatively identified through various means other than fingerprints, including items found in clothing. They are Aniket Shrikhande, Kajsa Barnette, Elmore James and Clinton Seabrook, Wooten said.

Four people injured in the crash were taken to Medical University Hospital. Two were hospitalized, but both were released Sunday, spokeswoman Leslie Snyder said.

Seabrook, James and Barnette appeared to have been house painters because of equipment found in the van in which they were traveling, Wooten said. Gross was affiliated with the Sherwin-Williams company, she said.

Shrikhande was an engineer who had been working in the Charleston area the past seven months, a relative said.

"Because of the nature of the injuries it did make identification more difficult," Wooten said. "In cases like this, our first choice is fingerprints."

The coroner's office had a starting point for three of the victims but had nothing to go on to identify Seabrook and James until relatives called.

A relative of James' contacted the coroner soon after the crash, but no one called about Seabrook until an appeal was made through the media for help identifying him, Wooten said.

Dental and medical records are useful once a tentative identification has been made, she said.

"We do believe, based on the information we've been provided, that it is Mr. Seabook," Wooten said. "We will be working with her (his wife) to confirm that."

North Charleston Police Department is the lead agency in the crash investigation, but no one was available Sunday for comment.

State Highway Patrol spokesman Lance Cpl. Bob Beres said authorities were still working to identify some of the vehicles destroyed by impact and intense flames. They have been unable to read either the license plate numbers or the vehicle identification numbers.

"They were not only badly burned, but crushed," Beres said.

The incident started at 4:31 p.m. amid the influx of eastbound traffic from North Rhett Avenue. A truck and trailer slammed into the rear of a car merging onto Interstate 526. The car and a van went under the empty refrigerated Ryder truck. Another car was trapped between the truck and a wall that runs along the entrance ramp. The truck exploded into flames that consumed the van and two cars.

Beres said a vehicle that was pinned beneath the truck was all but unrecognizable as a vehicle.

"I didn't realize that it was there till someone pointed it out to me," he said.

Gross died in the car between the truck and the wall. Shrikhande, 25, died in a car underneath the truck. He was identified through vehicle registration and materials in the car. Barnette, of the Rock Hill area, James, of Lexington County, and Seabrook died in the van under the truck, officials said.

The identity of the truck driver was not available Sunday. Officials said it could take weeks before the cause of the crash is pinpointed.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at pfindlay@postandcourier.com or 937-5711.Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 745-5865.