Woman dies after falling from motorcycle and plummeting off overpass, SC police say

A woman was killed Monday when she lost control of the motorcycle she was riding and fell from a highway overpass, according to the Charleston Police Department.

The single-vehicle collision happened at about 5 p.m. on an off-ramp on the northbound side of S.C. 61, police said Tuesday in a news release.

The motorcycle rider lost control when she was driving on the elevated off-ramp of the Fielding Connector toward the junction of S.C. 61 and Wesley Drive, according to the release. That’s in the area between the Ashley River and Wappoo Creek.

The rider fell from the overpass onto the road below, police said. Information about the distance of the fall was not available, and it was not clear if the motorcycle also fell from the overpass.

EMS took the rider to the Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Charleston where she died, according to police.

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office has not publicly identified the motorcycle rider.

No other injuries were reported in the crash that police said caused the roads to be closed for more than 2 hours as officers investigated.

Information about what caused the rider to lose control was not available, but the crash continues to be investigated by police.

Anyone with information about the wreck is asked to call police at 843-965-4084.

Through Sunday, 483 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2024, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Last year, 1,030 people died in crashes in South Carolina, DPS reported.

There have been nine fatal crashes in Charleston in 2024, and at least 27 in Charleston County, according to DPS data. There were 75 deaths in the county in 2023, DPS reported.