Driver of logging truck charged in fatal accident

A Chester man was jailed Monday and charged with two counts of reckless homicide in the deaths of two Lewisville Elementary School children in a fatal collision March 26.

Lance Cpl. Bryan McDougald of the S.C. Highway Patrol said Monday afternoon that the driver of a logging truck that struck the van in which the children were riding ran a red light, causing the fatal collision.

"Obviously you can say that," McDougald said. "He has been charged."

Since the accident, McDougald, a spokesman for the patrol's Troop 4, has said repeatedly that one of the drivers in the collision ran a red light, but he could not say which until a report was completed by the patrol's Massive Accident Investigative Team was completed.

Hannah Quinton, 9, of 4113 Lanksford Road, Fort Lawn, and Nicholas Wayne Cherry, 7, of 3094 Lizzie Melton Road, Fort Lawn, were declared dead at the scene by Chester County Coroner Terry Tinker. The cause of death was massive body trauma.

Hannah's mother, Alice W. Quinton, 39, was picking the children up from Lewisville Elementary School. She was driving a 2003 Dodge van.

Also in the van were Timothy Quinton, 6 and Taylor Cherry, 6. Timothy and Taylor, along with Alice Quinton, were flown by helicopter to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

Alice Quinton was pulling out of Lewisville High School Road in her van headed north into the intersection of S.C. 9, McDougald said.

A 1988 Freightliner tractor trailer logging truck driven by George Rogers, 51, of 2625 Ashford Road, Chester, was headed west on S.C. 9.

The truck was owned by Levister Logging of Carlisle.

The two collided. The van was broadsided and was caved in. The log truck flipped to its side into the median, spilling its logs many yards from the point of impact.

The MAIT team can "get the speed of the vehicles down to a tenth of a mile an hour," McDougald said.

Rogers was taken by ambulance to Chester Regional Medical Center.

Helicopters carried the other two children and the driver of the van to the hospital.

McDougald said the report on the accident is not complete, and would not be released until "the case has been adjudicated."

But the available evidence reached a point at which it was presented to Sixth Circuit Solicitor Doug Barfield, who decided the two charges would be appropriate.

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