Six sent to hospital following Sunday accident

Richard James, a Cherokee County 911 dispatcher, said he was watching the Olympics on television when he heard this crash outside his home. Six people were sent to the hospital following a violent two-car crash in Gaffney on Sunday afternoon that sent one of the cars careening into the front yard of a Cherokee County 911 emergency dispatcher and the other into the dispatcher's truck.

Police were checking out witness reports Sunday afternoon that the driver of one of the cars involved in the wreck was being chased by an unidentified driver in a third vehicle when he went through a stop sign at the North Granard and Mill Street intersection.

Richard James, a Cherokee County 911 dispatcher who lives at the intersection, said he was watching the Olympics on television when he heard the crash. "It sounded like somebody dropped a bomb," he said.

Outside his home, a black Kia sedan with a mangled front end crashed through the wrought iron fence in James' front yard and tore through the bushes that framed his walkway. A few feet away, a cream-colored Mini Cooper was sitting against James' pickup truck - which it hit during a secondary impact after it was spun around in the roadway.

As his family called 911, he said he went outside to see if anyone was injured and helped one woman out of one of the cars. It appeared to him the woman had chest and stomach injuries, he said.

Police identified the driver of the Kia as 21-year-old Dwayn Mauney Jr., of Blacksburg.

The driver of the Mini Cooper was identified as 35- year-old Candace Bright of Gaffney.

Each of the drivers had two passengers in their cars. Their names and medical conditions weren't immediately available.

The right rear passenger in Mauney's vehicle reportedly suffered a collapsed lung and was taken by ambulance to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center.

A witness who did not want to give his name said he saw the black car go through the intersection and then heard the crash. The black car was traveling west on Mill Street, which has a stop sign, while the witness said the Mini Cooper was traveling on Granard.

Regardless of how the accident happened, James and others said the North Granard and Mill Street intersection has been dangerous for years. James' fence has been repaired before and a brick wall roughly 30 feet into his yard bears the scars of a previous impact by a car.

On the lawn outside James' home are the stumps of the trees that once lined the roadway. "There's been so many wrecks there's no trees here anymore," he said.

Tow truck operator Joe Craig, who was called to remove one of the two vehicles from the scene, attested to the high number of accidents at the intersection. "They need a red light here," he said. "It happens once or twice every month."