Woman charged with felony DUI after fatal Highway 301 crash

A pass in a no-passing zone on Highway 301 turned deadly in Allendale County, leaving one passenger dead, several people injured and a 32-year-old driver facing felony DUI charges. The crash happened near the Georgia state line, where U.S. 301 carries local traffic, freight and cross-border travel through one of the county’s most important road corridors.

South Carolina Highway Patrol said a Jeep SUV tried to pass another vehicle on June 7 at about 4:45 p.m. and slammed head-on into a Mercedes SUV. The passenger in the Mercedes died, and everyone else involved was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries. Law enforcement identified the Jeep driver as Saundra Lee Chiefstick-Grover and charged her with felony DUI with death and felony DUI with great bodily injury.

A later correction clarified that the person who died was the Mercedes passenger, not the Jeep passenger. Chiefstick-Grover remained in the Allendale County Detention Center after the crash.

The case puts South Carolina’s felony DUI law in sharp focus. State law treats impaired driving as a felony when it proximately causes great bodily injury or death, and the South Carolina Department of Public Safety says those convictions can carry mandatory prison time and other penalties. For a county as small as Allendale, where the 2020 census counted 8,039 residents, a single fatal wreck can ripple quickly through families, churches, workplaces and emergency responders.

State crash data showed Allendale County at zero traffic fatalities for 2026 year-to-date through June 7 before this wreck was counted. Across South Carolina, the same dashboard listed 363 traffic deaths through that date, a reminder that the loss on Highway 301 was part of a larger road-safety problem that still weighs on the state.

The location adds another layer to the concern. The South Carolina Department of Transportation has said the U.S. 301 bridge over the Savannah River connects Allendale County and Screven County, Georgia, and that the aging structure, now more than 50 years old, is being targeted for replacement and roadway improvements. That makes the route not just a local road, but a vital bi-state link where one reckless move can bring immediate and lasting consequences.

For Allendale County residents who use Highway 301 every day, the crash is a reminder that a brief passing decision can become a fatal encounter in an instant. The charges now move the case into the courts, where the consequences will be measured not only in penalties but in the life that was lost and the injuries that followed.