Stolen disaster relief trailer, SUV involved in wreck

Just two days after a disaster relief trailer built by volunteers and owned by the Broad River Baptist Association returned from hurricane relief efforts in Texas, it was stolen from a church lot. Late Saturday night, the thief who stole the trailer lost control on Gold Mine Road and jackknifed the trailer directly into the path of an oncoming vehicle, injuring two people. Here, the shattered trailer sits in a towing company's impound yard. Tray Seals saw an oncoming trailer swerving about a half mile in the distance but believed the driver towing the trailer was able to get it under control.

He and his girlfriend would soon find out, however, that wasn't the case.

A still unidentified thief using an apparently stolen sport utility vehicle to tow away a stolen disaster relief trailer owned by the Broad River Baptist Association lost control on Gold Mine Road in Gaffney late Saturday night and jackknifed the trailer just as Seals and his girlfriend were headed in the opposite direction.

Seals and Jennifer Meadows, of Ford Road, were able to walk away, but just barely and not without scars.

Seals was knocked out in the crash and he didn't awaken until he was at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. Meadows, meanwhile, sustained a severe laceration to her throat when a piece of flying metal came through the window of their vehicle.

Their vehicle was totaled in the wreck, as was the disaster relief trailer.

The driver who was towing the stolen trailer, meanwhile, fled on foot from the scene. No arrest had been reported as of Tuesday.

The Gaffney Police Department is investigating the theft of the trailer while the South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the accident. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office is investigating the theft of the sport utility vehicle that was towing the trailer, according to police reports.

Dr. Donnie Padgett of the Broad River Baptist Association said the disaster relief trailer, which contained several shower stalls and clothes washers and dryers, had just returned from a month-long trip to Texas where it was used in hurricane relief efforts.

The trailer specifically was built to give rescue workers and disaster victims a chance to wash up when such takenfor granted amenities are scarce.

"There's no doubt they (the thief or thieves) knew what it was," Padgett said of the trailer, which was clearly marked on each side with Broad River Baptist Association decals.

"You don't know how to feel," he said. "You have a unit that for the last month has been helping people. Then you bring it home and now it's destroyed. It really breaks your heart."

What's left of the trailer sat in a fenced yard at Blanton's Wrecker Service on Monday. Padgett said he still had not heard from an insurance adjuster on Tuesday but he believed the trailer would be covered by insurance.

The Broad River Baptist Association bought the trailer about two years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and volunteers converted it into a shower unit on wheels after deciding there was a real need for such services in times of disaster.

Seals said he and Meadows were returning from a friend's house when they spotted the oncoming trailer.

"We saw the truck, like a half mile up the road," he said. "We saw it swerving, losing control. Then the headlights (on the approaching truck) got still and it looked like he got control again so we kept going."

His girlfriend was driving at the time, Seals said.

"Right when we got to him (the driver of the oncoming truck and trailer) swerved into our lane and he jerked it back and the trailer jackknifed into our side."

While Seals and his girlfriend both sustained serious injuries, Seals said, "We were very lucky."

He wasn't sure how they would replace their only vehicle, however.