Teenage driver killed in head-on crash on South Carolina road, coroner says
A South Carolina teenager was killed Wednesday when the car he was driving crashed into a pickup truck, according to the Berkeley County Coroner’s Office.
Jayln Gilliard, a 17-year-old Summerville resident, died in what Coroner Darnell Hartwell called an accident in a Thursday news release.
The two-vehicle collision happened at about 3:55 p.m. Wednesday, said Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Gilliard was driving a 2017 Hyundai sedan west on S.C. 402 in the Huger area of South Carolina’s Lowcountry, according to Ridgeway. Near the intersection with Governors Lane the car swerved left of the center line and crashed head-on with a 2022 Ford pickup that was driving east on S.C. 402, Ridgeway said.
Gilliard, who was not wearing a seatbelt, died at the scene, Hartwell said.
Ridgeway said that the pickup driver was not hurt, and no other injuries were reported.
There was no word if the pickup driver was wearing a seatbelt.
Information about what caused the car to veer into oncoming traffic was not available, but the wreck continues to be investigated by the Highway Patrol and coroner’s office.
Through Monday, 75 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2026, according to the state Department of Public Safety. A minimum of 914 people were killed in collisions in South Carolina in 2025, DPS data shows.
At least six people have died in Berkeley County crashes this year, and 34 people died in wrecks there in 2025, according to DPS data.
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This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Teenage driver killed in head-on crash on South Carolina road, coroner says."
