Ledger photo / TIM GULLA A South Carolina Highway Patrol investigator takes a photo of what remains of a 2007 Chevrolet Impala sedan. The driver of the car, a 53-year-old Moore man returning home from the Charlotte- Douglas International Airport following a business trip, was killed. Two major traffic accidents on Interstate 85 Thursday evening left one man dead and snarled traffic for hours.

The first of the two accidents occurred at 5:39 p.m. near mile marker 97, a short distance from the Shelby Highway intersection. According to Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler, the driver of a northbound UPS truck ran off the right side of the roadway, overcorrected and then struck a Chevrolet pickup. The UPS truck and the pickup then crossed the median into the southbound lanes where the UPS truck T-boned a southbound 2007 Chevrolet sedan.

The driver of the sedan, 53-yearold Richard J. Veres of Cross Hill Road, Moore, died at the scene from his injuries.

South Carolina Highway Patrol accident reconstructors still were investigating the incident late Thursday. Lance Cpl. Josef Robinson identified the driver of the UPS truck as Ivy Harvell, 48, of Charlotte, N.C. The driver of the Chevrolet pickup was identified as Dwight Burcham, 52, of Galax, Va. He and the two passengers in his vehicle were not injured, Robinson reported.

The UPS truck overturned and came to rest about 300 feet away from Moore's vehicle. The pickup apparently avoided the collision in the southbound lane and continued across the roadway, through a fence, and came to rest near the frontage road.

Firefighters from the City of Gaffney's Station 10 and Station 15 and the Grassy Pond Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene. The emergency responders had to use cutting tools to pull apart the crushed remains of Veres' vehicle so Fowler could remove the body. Fowler said he learned from Veres' family that Veres was returning home from the Charlotte- Douglas International Airport following a business trip.

A second accident occurred around 9 p.m. Thursday when a tractor trailer jackknifed in the southbound lanes near exit 100 of Interstate 85. The accidents forced South Carolina Highway Patrol and the Department of Transportation to temporarily re-route traffic from Interstate 85 to Highway 29 and 329.