LIBERTY — Four people, including at least three law enforcement officers, were transported to Upstate emergency rooms following a police chase and wreck on S.C. 123 Thursday night.
According to officials at the scene, officers with the Easley Police Department were involved in a pursuit of a vehicle containing the suspect and a female passenger on S.C. 123 headed toward Liberty just before 10 p.m. Thursday.
The suspect’s car crossed the median and crashed into the woods on the other side of the northbound lane near Ross Avenue.
According to Pickens County Sheriff Office Chief Deputy Creed Hashe, an on-duty deputy with the PCSO who was on routine patrol stopped to help after he observed several EPD vehicles stopped in the median with their emergency equipment activated.
The deputy was not part of the original pursuit, he said.
“The deputy exited his marked patrol unit and walked across the highway to where the police officers were investigating and restraining a passenger from a vehicle originally involved in the Easley PD investigation,” Hashe said.
That’s when Easley Police Chief Tim Tollison said the officers — two Easley city police officers and the PCSO deputy — were struck by another vehicle not previously involved in the incident.
Also hit was the female passenger who officers had removed from the suspect’s vehicle.
At least two helicopters and multiple ambulances were on scene transporting the four victims to a hospital in Greenville.
“The deputy received minor injuries and was treated and released from a local hospital,” said Hashe. “The South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.”
The EPD officers are also OK, said Tollison.
“Thank you to everyone that has commented with concerns and prayers about the officers that were struck (Sept. 7) by a vehicle on US 123,” Tollison wrote in a released online statement. “Both Easley officers are doing well and are in good spirits.”
Tollison said the officers’ injuries were “minor” and they both had been since released from the hospital.
There has been no word on the condition of the female passenger, but witnesses at the scene claimed she had been one of the patients airlifted.
Tollison said she is not under arrest.
As of presstime, the suspect who was driving the vehicle and fled the scene is still unidentified and at large.