The golf cart and the rental car. Photo / ABC4
The first images have emerged of the golf cart in which bride Samantha Hutchinson tragically lost her life, showing the force of the impact that killed her and left her groom seriously injured when they were struck by an alleged drink-driver.
Both the golf cart and the rental car that struck it are parked in a local tow yard after the crash last Friday night in Folly Beach, South Carolina.
Local media reported that a piece of Hutchinson’s wedding dress was left in the grille of the rental car.
WCIV reported that the bride and groom were riding on the back seat and were facing the speeding car when it hit.
Video shows the seats detached and the rear axle broken.
“A quick journey from the venue to their Airbnb for their wedding night,” Samantha Hutchinson’s sister Mandi Jenkins told the local news outlet. “What’s gonna go wrong?”
The channel also shared heartbreaking video, supplied by family, of the couple’s first dance.
A photo taken just moments before the tragedy shows Samantha Hutchinson and her new husband Aric smiling widely as friends and family celebrate their union.
Minutes after the photo was taken, their marriage met a fatal end at the hands of the speeding drink-driver.
Data retrieved from Jamie Lee Komoroski’s rental car indicated she was driving 105km/h and only briefly hit the brakes before she hit the golf cart around 10pm Friday on Folly Beach, investigators said earlier this week.
The speed limit on the island near Charleston is 40km/h.
Hutchinson’s mother earlier revealed the heartbreaking final moments she shared with her daughter of what should have been the happiest day of her life.
Lisa Miller had just unwound with a change of clothes and a glass of wine on her short-term rental’s balcony when the sound of sirens gave the first impression that her daughter’s wedding night had gone awry.
Within minutes, she was riding with her new in-laws to the South Carolina beach road where authorities say a woman driving under the influence at twice the speed limit slammed into the golf cart escorting a happy couple away from their sparkler-filled goodbye at a reception overlooking the Atlantic shoreline.
A day that had begun blissfully with charcuterie and mimosas along the beach ended with hours spent in agony outside a hospital where she had wrongly been told her daughter had been taken. Then, Lisa Miller said she learned that the bride’s father had identified the body back at the crash site.
Samantha Hutchinson, 34, died while still wearing her wedding dress. The groom, Aric Hutchinson, is recovering from a brain injury and numerous broken bones after the golf cart was thrown 91 meters. Two other occupants also reportedly suffered injuries of varying severity.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, native was remembered as a positive person who sought to take care of everyone in her presence.
It’s a nature her mother said is emblematised by one of her final acts. At the reception, her daughter had the DJ make a surprise announcement for a dance with “the most important person in the bride’s life”. Mum and daughter were soon dancing to Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars.
“Sam doesn’t want this to destroy our lives,” Lisa Miller said. “We know that.”
A GoFundMe page created by Aric Hutchinson’s mother has raised over $1 million to help pay for Samantha’s burial and Aric’c ongoing medical treatment.
“Aric is in serious condition and has had one of two reconstruction surgeries, numerous broken bones, and a brain injury, he will have a long recovery,” Annette Hutchinson wrote.
“I was handed Aric’s wedding ring in a plastic bag at the hospital, five hours after Sam placed it on his finger and they read each other their vows. Aric has lost the love of his life,” she added.
Jamie Komoroski, 25, has been charged with reckless vehicular homicide and three counts of driving under the influence causing death or great bodily injury. She told the responding officer that she had consumed one beer and a drink with tequila about an hour before the crash, according to an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press.
When asked how she felt on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being completely sober, Komoroski allegedly rated herself an eight.
She grew uncooperative after refusing to complete a sobriety test, according to the affidavit, and the officer had to help her stand. The officer then reported getting a warrant for two vials of blood after she refused to provide a breath sample at the station.
- Additional reporting, AP