US bride killed by ‘drink driver’ in golf cart crash hours after wedding
2 May 2023, 14:34
Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, is charged with reckless vehicular homicide and three counts of driving under the influence causing death.
A bride leaving her wedding reception was killed when a speeding drink driver slammed into the back of a golf cart on a South Carolina beach road, US authorities said.
Data retrieved from Jamie Lee Komoroski’s rental car indicated she was driving at 65mph and only briefly hit the brakes before she crashed into the golf cart at around 10pm on Friday at Folly Beach, investigators said.
The speed limit on the island near Charleston is 25mph.
Samantha Miller, 34, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died in the crash, according to the Charleston County Coroner’s Office.
Ms Miller had got married hours earlier, Folly Beach Public Safety Department director Andrew Gilreath said.
Three others in the golf cart including the groom were injured. Mr Gilreath said the golf cart had lights and was legal to drive at night.
The groom’s mother created an online fund to pay for her daughter-in-law’s funeral and her son’s medical bills. It included a photo of the newlyweds running under sparklers just before the crash.
It also had a photo of groom Aric Hutchinson in hospital, where he is recovering from a brain injury and numerous broken bones after the golf cart rolled over several times and was thrown 100 yards (91m).
Annette Hutchinson wrote that at the hospital she was handed a bag with her son’s wedding ring five hours after his now-dead wife put it on his finger.
Komoroski, 25, is charged with reckless vehicular homicide and three counts of driving under the influence (DUI) causing death. She faces one to 25 years in prison on each DUI count.
