SC man killed when car crashes into tree by Midlands road, coroner says

A Midlands man was killed Monday night when the car he was driving ran off the road and crashed into a tree, the Sumter County Coroner’s Office said.

Matthew Connolly IV, a 34-year-old Sumter resident, died in the accident, Coroner Robbie Baker said Tuesday in a news release.

The single-vehicle collision happened at about 10 p.m., according to the release.

Connolly was driving a vehicle on Mattison Avenue and it left the road and hit a tree near the intersection with Nash Street, Baker said. That’s near Second Millpond, about a mile from the USC-Sumter campus.

Connolly was taken to an area hospital where he died, according to the release. An autopsy will be performed at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston this week, Baker said.

No other injuries were reported.

Connolly was not wearing a seat belt, the coroner’s office said.

Information about what caused Connolly’s vehicle to veer off the road was not available, but the crash continues to be investigated by the coroner’s office and the Sumter Police Department.

Through Sunday, 184 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2023, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Last year, 1,081 people died in crashes in South Carolina, DPS reported.

At least seven people have died in Sumter County crashes in 2023, according to DPS data. Last year, 29 deaths were reported in the county, DPS reported.