Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
COLUMBIA — A Columbia-Richland firefighter has been issued a traffic ticket after the firetruck he was driving hit a car in July, killing the driver and injuring her passenger. Bryan Richardson, an engineer at the fire department, was charged Oct. 28 with driving at a speed greater than is reasonable under conditions, according to Richland County court records. Richardson’s citation comes three months after he crashed a 2021 Pierce fire engine into a 2010 Nissan Sentra on the evening of July 12, while driving 69 miles per hour against the flow of traffic on Two Notch Road. He’d been going 29 mph above the posted speed limit of 40 mph, S.C. Highway Patrol investigators said in a recently released report. The car driver, Carolyn “Cee Cee” Collins, 64, died at the scene. Her passenger, Leitha Williams, was taken to the Prisma Health Richland Hospital with suspected serious injuries, according to the case report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Columbia-Richland Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins earlier said Collins died in what was the department’s first fatal firetruck collision since he became chief in July 2011. Fire department officials were aware of Highway Patrol’s findings but declined to comment, spokesperson Mike DeSumma said. But in a news conference the day after the crash, Jenkins had said that, once the investigators figure out what happened, “we’ll address it at that time.” A blaze and a crash The crash occurred while Richardson and four other local firefighters were responding to a structure fire in northeast Columbia. The investigative report and related notes, totaling 75 pages, detail how the collision unfolded: The firetruck was traveling north on Two Notch Road, with the emergency lights and sirens activated, when it got stalled in traffic near Decker Boulevard. Richardson maneuvered the firetruck into the southbound lane, going against the flow of traffic. As it was approaching Baker’s Sports Pub and Grill, a car made a left-hand turn in front of the fire engine. Richardson saw the car coming over and thought the driver was going to stop, “but she swung out,” he told one of the investigators. He tried to hit the brakes. An unnamed witness describes seeing the firetruck swerve to avoid the car, yet it “struck the Nissan.” The firetruck hit the car’s left side, causing the sedan to turn counter-clockwise. Photographs attached to the Highway Patrol report show the left side of the car mangled and both of its airbags inflated. The firetruck was traveling 69 mph three seconds before the crash and 56 mph upon impact, the vehicle’s data recorder revealed. ‘A beautiful soul’ One of the firefighters extracted Collins from the driver’s seat. A nurse bystander performed CPR on her, with the help of a different firefighter. Another firefighter tended to Williams, Collins’ companion. Richardson and his four firefighter passengers sustained minor injuries, the investigation paperwork shows. Williams said she and Collins got together that day to hang out for the first time in years. They went to Two Notch Road to find a place where Collins could fill up her tire with air. Collins then suggested going to Baker’s Sports Pub and Grill to get a drink. “That is the last thing that Ms. Williams remembers before waking up in the hospital,” an investigator said. A funeral home’s online memorial for Collins has elicited more than a hundred posts. People reminisced about her radiant smile, sense of humor, warmth, caring ways and love of life. Someone described her as “a beautiful soul.” Fatal crashes caused by firetrucks are a rare occurrence in the state. Among emergency vehicles, police cars are the most often involved in crashes and firetrucks the least, according to a Post and Courier analysis of S.C. Department of Public Safety data from Jan. 1, 2010 to July 19, 2025. During this decade and a half, the state recorded over 26,000 crashes involving police cars, ambulances and firetrucks. Of the 138 crashes that were fatal, emergency vehicles were found to have contributed to the collision in 60 cases, or less than half. The share of firetrucks in these deadly wrecks was two. They include the crash that claimed Collins’ life. Richardson is scheduled to appear in Richland County traffic court this January. His employment status with the fire department is unclear. When he sat behind the Pierce fire engine’s wheel on July 12, according to the highway patrol report, he’d been driving firetrucks for 10 years. Hongyu Liu contributed to this report.
