Dad killed in head-on crash was on his way to pick up his family, SC coroner says

A dad on his way to see his family was killed in a head-on crash in South Carolina, officials said.

The man was driving a car on an Anderson County highway when state troopers said he went across the center line. He then hit an SUV that had been going in the opposite direction on Saturday, Aug. 6, according to S.C. Highway Patrol.

The man died at the scene. The Anderson County coroner’s office identified him as 38-year-old Eric Omar Rivera.

Officials in a news release said two people from the SUV were rushed to a Greenville medical center. The SUV driver had life-threatening injuries.

The crash was reported at about 4:30 p.m. on S.C. Highway 8 near Looper Road. The area is in Pelzer, roughly 15 miles southwest of Greenville.

Rivera, who lived in the nearby city of Liberty, was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. He died as “a result of multiple traumatic injuries secondary to blunt force trauma,” officials said.

“The investigation indicates that the decedent was traveling to Simpsonville, S.C., to his family’s residence to pick up his wife and children,” the coroner’s office wrote in its news release. “Distracted driving appears to be a factor in the collision.”

The coroner’s office and state troopers were investigating the crash as of Aug. 6.

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