A new bride was killed and a groom seriously seriously injured on their wedding night when a suspected drunken driver crashed into a golf cart ferrying them from their reception in a South Carolina beach town, authorities and family members said.
The incident took place on April 28 in Folly Beach, about 10 miles outside of Charleston, as the newlywed couple left their reception, authorities told NBC affiliates WYFF and WCBD.
The bride, Samantha Hutchinson, 34, was pronounced dead on the scene, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by WYFF.
The groom, Aric Hutchinson, and two other family members in the golf cart were seriously injured and "in and out of consciousness" when police arrived on the scene.
"My sister, a daughter, a wife, died in her wedding dress because someone made a terrible decision to get in the car," Mandi Jenkins, Samantha Hutchinson's sister, said on TODAY Tuesday.
The driver, who authorities identified as 25-year-old Jamie Lee Komoroski, was traveling at 65 mph and briefly hit the brakes before crashing into the golf cart from behind, investigators told the Associated Press, citing data from her car. The speed limit in Folly Beach is 25 mph.
Komoroski told police on the scene she had consumed one beer and one drink with tequila about an hour before the collision. When asked how impaired she was one a scale from one to 10, "she stated she was at an 8," the affidavit said.
Komoroski refused to cooperate with authorities to complete a field sobriety test or provide a breath sample, the affidavit said. Her blood was later drawn at an area hospital.
Komoroski has been charged with one count of reckless vehicular homicide and three counts of felony DUI resulting in great bodily harm, police said.
She was being held without bail, according to WYFF. It was unclear if she had an attorney representing her.
Folly Beach Public Safety Department Director Andrew Gilreath told the AP the golf cart had lights and was legal to drive at night. Folly Beach police did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.
"She, from the moment she woke up that day until she left the venue, she told Aric on the golf cart that she wanted this day to last forever," Jenkins said of her sister. "He told us that at the hospital today when we saw him."
A GoFundMe page was created by the groom’s mother, Annette Hutchinson, to cover medical fees and her daughter-in-law's burial.
The post said her son was in the hospital in critical condition, with injuries that included brain trauma and several broken bones. He received one of two planed reconstructive surgeries and was expected to have a long recovery, the post said.
The page featured a photo of the smiling couple leaving the reception as their guests waved sparklers around them. It apparently was taken just moments before the accident.
“I was handed Aric’s wedding ring in a plastic bag at the hospital, five hours after Sam placed it on his finger and they read each other their vows,” Annette Hutchinson said in the post. “Aric has lost the love of his life.”
Annette Hutchinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
On May 1, Samantha Hutchinson’s employer, XenTegra, an IT solutions company, shared the news of her passing with a post on LinkedIn.
“Words cannot express how devastated we are by her loss," the post said.
"She carried a light about her, one that shined so brightly upon everyone with whom she interacted," the company said. "Simply put, Samantha brought an abundance of joy and laughter to the workplace.”