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Driver in fatal crash with ambulance charged with DUI

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, SC (WIS) - The driver of a car that hit an ambulance early Sunday morning killing one and sending six people to the hospital has been charged with DUI.

Zachary Thomas, 23, of Orangeburg is charged with Felony DUI. Troopers say he was driving drunk and collided with a Bamberg County ambulance carrying a mother and her newborn child.

The wreck happened around 7:30 a.m. on Magnolia Street at Stilton Road, about one mile north of Orangeburg.  A passenger in the Dodge, 23-year-old Christopher Harrison, died in the wreck.

Thomas was taken to Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital for treatment. All five occupants of the ambulance were also taken to a local hospital.

Troopers said the ambulance was on its way to the Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties. Thetandd.com is reporting that the injured mother had just given birth at Bamberg Hospital, and was being transported with her newborn to RMC for admittance.

Martha Hammett, operations manager for Bamberg Rescue Squad Inc., the agency contracted for EMS services in Bamberg County, told thetandd.com everyone who was in the ambulance is okay. 

The highway patrol's MAIT team is investigating the crash.

Thomas, who is a Winthrop student, was given bond of $15,200 in an Orangeburg courtroom Wednesday morning.

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