Search results
Mar 2, 2024 · The driver accused of killing a bride on her wedding night while allegedly drunk behind the wheel, was freed from prison Friday — less than a year after the deadly crash.. Jamie Lee Komoroski ...
May 15, 2023 · Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, was allegedly driving the car that crashed into a golf cart carrying Samantha Miller and her husband, Aric Hutchinson, who were leaving their wedding reception in South ...
- Mirna Alsharif
- 2 min
May 12, 2023 · Komoroski, 25, was driving 65 miles per hour in her rental car before she hit the back of the golf cart carrying the bride around 10 p.m. Friday on Folly Beach, investigators said.
- Tabachnick
- 5 min
- Overview
- Allegations of an alcohol-fueled evening
- A quest for accountability
The groom whose wife was struck and killed in a car crash in South Carolina on the couple's wedding night has sued the alleged drunk driver and the bars she allegedly drank at before she got behind the wheel, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in South Carolina's Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, accuses driver Jamie Komoroski, 25, and the owners of five South Carolina bars — Snapper Jacks, The Drop In, The Crab Shack, El Gallo Bar & Grill and Taco Boy, where Komoroski was employed — of negligence and wrongful death in the crash on Folly Beach on April 28 that killed Samantha Miller, 34, of Charlotte, North Carolina, as she and her husband, Aric Hutchinson, 36, were leaving their wedding reception in a golf cart.
The suit alleges that employees of the bars Komoroski allegedly visited the night of April 28 overserved her even though she was “noticeably and visibly intoxicated” and that she got behind the wheel after an alleged “booze-filled day of bar hopping.”
Hutchinson, the groom, was seriously injured, sustaining a brain injury and broken bones. A witness reported that Komoroski “was dazed and confused” at the scene and repeatedly said “I did nothing wrong” and that she wanted to go home, according to the incident report.
Hutchinson said Saturday at a memorial in Miller’s honor on Folly Beach that he is feeling “just as good as I can feel with the situation.” He filed the suit both as the representative of Miller's estate and on his own behalf, the complaint says.
Danny Dalton, the attorney representing Miller’s family, said in a statement that the case “is about keeping our community safe from drunk drivers, and an important part of that effort is making sure the establishments we entrust with liquor licenses live up to their responsibility to serve alcohol responsibly.”
The lawsuit alleges that Komoroski began her evening drinking at El Gallo Bar & Grill in Charleston before she drove 26 miles south to the city of Folly Beach, where she allegedly drank at three more local bars: The Drop In, The Crab Shack and Snapper Jacks.
“Over the course of several hours, Jamie Komoroski slurred and staggered her way through each of these bars, consuming an assortment of alcoholic beverages, including beer, tequila shots, shift shots of liquor on the house, etc.,” the suit alleges.
“By the end of the night, Jamie Komoroski was grossly and dangerously intoxicated,” it says.
Komoroski's blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit in South Carolina, which is 0.08%, according to a toxicology report.
The incident report says she told a sergeant at the scene of the crash — on the 1200 block of East Ashley Avenue in Folly Beach — that she had two drinks that night, a beer and a “tequila pineapple an hour ago or so.” Komoroski refused to perform any field sobriety tests, and she was swaying as a sergeant asked her to stand up, according to the incident report.
A sergeant said he “smelled an odor of alcohol coming from her breath and person,” the incident report says, adding that Komoroski was driving 65 mph per hour in a 25 mph zone — and in the opposite direction of her home — at the time of the crash.
The lawsuit also names as defendants 20 unspecified “Jane Does” who may have contributed to the events.
Also named as plaintiffs, alongside Hutchinson, are Benjamin Garrett, Hutchinson's brother-in-law, and his son, a minor, who were driving the newly married couple in a golf cart back to their accommodations for the evening and suffered "terrible and permanent injuries," the complaint says.
Andrew Gilreath, the director of the Folly Beach Public Safety Department, has told The Associated Press that the golf cart had lights and was authorized to drive at night.
Hutchinson and the other plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages, according to the lawsuit.
Dalton, the family's attorney, said the family hopes filing the lawsuit will allow it to learn more about what happened in the hours and minutes before the fatal crash and who should be held responsible.
“There are still many details we don’t know about the sequence of events leading up to the tragic crash, but by filing a lawsuit, we can begin the legal discovery process that allows us to get the answers that Samantha’s family deserves," Dalton said in a statement.
Jun 19, 2024 · Hutchinson is also suing the bars that the woman, Jamie Lee Komoroski, allegedly went to before the crash. On April 28, Hutchinson and Miller were having their "perfect" wedding day near ...
- caitlin.okane@paramount.com
- 29 sec
May 22, 2023 · Jamie Lee Komoroski at times questioned why “this happened to me” — while saying she felt like a terrible person at other moments — during conversations with her parents and friends ...
People also ask
What happened at a wedding & how did komoroski die?
Who was Jamie komoroski?
Did komoroski get behind the wheel?
Why did Jamie Lee komoroski say 'this happened to me'?
May 11, 2023 · Jamie Komoroski, 25, was allegedly behind the wheel when she struck a golf cart carrying newlywed couple Samantha Miller and Aric Hutchinson, who had been married just hours earlier, away from their wedding reception. Miller, 34, died at the scene, while Hutchinson suffered severe injuries. Two other passengers — both relatives of the couple ...
