South Carolina E.M.S. Called To Military Bus Crash; Three Dead And 40 Hospitalized

At least three sailors are dead after a bus carrying Navy personnel to Beaufort for a memorial service was involved in an accident this morning.

The wreck happened about 8:05am on US 17 north of Gardens Corner. Two Navy buses carrying 80 to 100 sailors were involved in the accident. One bus hit a truck head on, the other following it went off the road in ended up in a neighboring yard.

Dozens of emergency vehicles from at least three different counties are on the scene. Traffic has been diverted around the accident site.

About 40 people have been transported to area hospitals, including the driver of the truck. About 60 of the military personnel are being taken to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

The sailors were heading to a memorial service in Beaufort for the man for whom their ship was named, William Pinckney. The The USS Pinckney docked in Charleston, South Carolina, Wednesday. Pinckney was a Beaufort native who won the Navy's second-highest honor for saving the life of a shipmate during a Japanese attack on the carrier USS Enterprise in 1942.

Pinckney died in 1975 and is buried in Beaufort.