Bluffton drunk driver pleads guilty in deadly 4-vehicle crash at Buckwalter Parkway

[Pelican Press 0]

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Bluffton ****** driver pleads guilty in deadly 4-vehicle ****** at Buckwalter Parkway

A Bluffton man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of driving under the influence after his speedy, impaired driving

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and ******* a motorcyclist at a notoriously dangerous intersection last summer.

Carlos Mauricos Acosta Galvez, 40, received 20 years in prison for the fatal DUI charge. He will be credited for the 398 days served at the Beaufort County Detention Center before trial, bringing his sentence to just under 19 years.

Galvez was also convicted of causing “great bodily injury” to the driver of a Mercedes SUV, who was hospitalized after firefighters used extrication equipment to remove him from his totaled vehicle. His 15-year sentence for that charge and a three-year sentence for an unrelated misdemeanor count of domestic ********* will run concurrently with his primary 20-year sentence.

The Aug. 6, 2023 ****** *******

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, who was struck by Galvez’s vehicle while turning from Buckwalter Parkway onto U.S. 278 in a Honda motorcycle. He was pronounced ***** at the scene.

Prosecutors say Galvez caused the collision while driving over 100 mph on U.S. 278 — nearly twice the highway’s speed limit of 55 mph — and had a blood-alcohol content of .169. He slammed into the Mercedes, causing it to strike the motorcyclist and the motorcycle to ****** into a Chevrolet, according to a Thursday afternoon press release from the

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Officials from the Bluffton Township ***** District, Bluffton Police Department, SC Highway Patrol, Beaufort County EMS and Beaufort County Coroner’s Office responded to a fatal ****** the evening of Aug. 8, 2023 at the intersection of Buckwalter Parkway and U.S. 278.

Galvez did not give a breath sample at the scene of the ****** because he was one of two people taken to Savannah’s Memorial Health University Medical Center with injuries, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. He was arrested following his discharge from the hospital and

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“The facts in this case made it clear Mr. Galvez had absolutely no regard for the value of human life,” said Assistant Solicitor Sara Malone, who prosecuted the case.

In March 2024, Galvez also pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina for reentering the country after already being deported. He will not serve additional jail time for the federal conviction but will be deported once his state prison sentence is completed.

Data shows the crossing of Fording Island Road and Buckwalter Parkway is one of the

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, with at least 66 collisions in the area between 2020 and mid-2024. Garrity was one of eight people ******* at the intersection in the same *******.

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One car involved in the four-vehicle ****** on Aug. 6, 2023 veered into the grass alongside the eastbound lanes of U.S. 278.

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