A woman is dead being struck by a police vehicle on a South Carolina beach on Thursday.
The Horry County police officer, who was not identified, has been placed on administrative leave, CBS News affiliate WBTW reported.
The unidentified woman was facing east on Nash Street, in the Myrtle Beach area, at around 1 p.m. on Thursday. The officer, driving a 2020 Ford Ranger Pickup truck, approached from the north and hit the woman.
The woman was transported to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, where she died, WBTW reported.
The incident remains under investigation, the Horry County Police Department said. The South Carolina Highway Patrol is leading the investigation.
“What occurred on the beach yesterday was a tragedy and we know our community is hurting,” the department said in a statement, WBTW reported. “Our hearts are with all those impacted by this loss. We also know our community has questions. We do too.”
Denis Miller, who was on the beach at the time of the incident, told WBTW that he had seen the aftermath of the collision.
“From my point of view, I had my back turned. I heard somebody yell ‘There’s somebody that’s been run over,’” Miller said. “We run over here, and yeah, there’s a lady on the ground and there’s a truck on top of her.”
This is the second such incident in Horry County in recent years. A woman was struck by a Horry County police patrol car while on the beach in Garden City in 2020. That woman survived, WBTW reported at the time.
In late May, a Florida police sergeant was cited for careless driving after he hit two beachgoers with his patrol vehicle. The pair, both young women, were sunbathing near a strip of hotels in Daytona Beach at the time. Both women were hospitalized.
Florida-based personal injury law firm McQuaid & Douglas says on its site that there have been at least 20 accounts of beach patrol cars running over sunbathers in recent years.