Christmas morning single-vehicle wreck injures deputy sheriff

A Union County deputy  was injured Christmas morning when he lost control of the sheriff’s department vehicle he was driving near the Myrtle city limits.

The vehicle left the roadway and bounced through an 8 foot ditch before striking the facility sign and coming to rest. Deputy Adam Fitts received serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.

Witnesses said Deputy Sheriff Adam Fitts was westbound on Highway 178 at about 9 a.m. Friday morning, Dec. 25th, when he lost control of a Chevrolet Tahoe on wet pavement.  The SUV left the roadway, bounced through an eight-foot ditch, struck a parked vehicle and came to rest less than 10 feet from the front wall of the Sunshine Inn Assisted Living facility. The SUV did not strike the building.

Sunshine Inn has 20 elderly residents.

Fitts suffered multiple fractures of his collar-bone, and Sheriff Jimmy Edwards said his recovery is expected to take about three months.

The vehicle Fitts was driving was the department’s canine transportation unit, but the trained police dog was not in the SUV when the wreck happened. No other moving vehicles were involved in the accident.

Deputy Fitts was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital Union County for treatment.

Sheriff Edwards said the accident occurred very near the same place where Deputy Sheriff Clint Frazier was killed in a one-vehicle accident during a high-speed chase two years earlier on Dec. 18, 2013.