Update: Deadly Week on Lexington County Roads

A motorcyclist is dead following an afternoon accident eight miles east of Batesburg in western Lexington County.

The wreck occurred at 12:05 p.m. Wednesday when the driver ran his Triumph motorcycle off the road to the right and hit a guardrail on the U.S. Highway 178 overpass at Interstate 20, S.C. Highway Patrol spokesman, Lance Cpl. Judd Jones, told Patch.

The driver, 71-year-old Walter Wells "Blackie" Collins of North, was pronounced dead at the scene by Lexington County Coroner Harry Harman. No other vehicles were involved and Collins was wearing his helmet. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death, Jones said. 

(Collins, Patch has learned, was a world-reknowned knife maker. Read more about his life's work here).

The accident is the latest in what has been a deadly week on Lexington County roads.

On Tuesday, 15-year-old driver Crystal Torres and her 10-year-old brother Bryan Torres, both of Gaston, were killed when their Honda Accord collided with an 18-wheeler traveling southbound on U.S. Highway 321 near Swansea, WIS-TV reported. 

The siblings died at the scene, while a third sibling in the car and the truck driver were transported to a local hospital for treatment. The accident remains under investigation. WIS has reported the 15-year-old was allegedly driving illegally. The girl, who held a learner's permit, did not have an adult in the car, the station reported.

In yet another fatality, Cayce Police said a West Columbia man died Saturday evening when he was struck by a drunk driver along Airport Boulevard. A second vehicle is believed to have also struck the victim, identified as Brunson Wallace Hendrix, 47, of West Columbia. The driver of that second vehicle, who fled the scene, is still being sought by authorities.

According to state Highway Patrol statistics, this week's deaths would give Lexington 28 so far this year, making the county's roads among the deadliest in the state.