​On July 1, 2020, about 9:50 a.m., a 2018 Ford F350 pickup truck with an attached unladen trailer was traveling west in the right lane of Interstate 526 (I-526) on the Don N. Holt Bridge in North Charleston, South Carolina. The pickup truck collided with the rear of a parked patrol car, which was stopped behind a disabled sport utility vehicle (SUV). The crash resulted in a subsequent collision between the SUV and a tow truck parked in front of it. Additionally, a sheriff’s deputy and a tow truck operator were also struck. The sheriff’s deputy sustained serious injuries and the tow truck driver was fatally injured.​

We determined that the probable cause of the North Charleston, South Carolina, crash was the pickup truck driver’s inattention to the driving task, likely due to fatigue, which resulted in his failure to respond to stopped vehicles in his travel lane.