From Powdersville/Wren area
Vigil held Tuesday night
Several hundred people showed up Tuesday night for a vigil for three young people killed in a single car accident Sunday night on Langston Road. Four people were in the Toyota when the accident occurred around 10 p.m. Sunday night. According to authorities, the vehicle ran off the roadway and struck several trees, uprooting one of them and then crashed down an embankment.
Victims were identified as Danielle Williams, 17, Kayla Mann, 21, and Lance Jones, 20. Mick Brown, 20, was in the back seat and managed to crawl out of the wreckage and was listed in critical condition. All four had ties to Wren and Powdersville high schools.
The driver, Danielle Williams of Liberty, would have turned 18 later this month. She was a senior at Wren High School with plans to get her cosmetology license.
Her passengers, 19-year-old Kayla Lee Mann and 20-year-old Lance Jones, both of Piedmont, also previously attended Wren High School. Mann graduated recently and Jones did not.
Brown is a recent graduate of Powdersville High School.
Counselors were on hand Monday at Wren High School, where a memorial banner has been placed in honor of the students.
Williams, the only current student, had also been earning cosmetology credits at the Anderson Districts I & II Career and Technology Center in Williamston. Her teacher there, Allison Joye, said Williams was a bright and energetic student.
Anderson School District One officials said they are deeply saddened by the death of Williams. She was set to graduate this spring and was in the third year of attending the Anderson One and Two Career and Technology Center in the Cosmetology program.
District One Superintendent David Havird said, “Our district has been severely impacted by the death of one of our Wren High school students, Danielle Williams. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Danielle.”
Nichole Boseman, Wren High School principal, said, ”Our Wren High School family is mourning the tragic death of Danielle Williams. She was a great student and loved attending the Career Center. We will miss her.”
Her cosmetology teacher from the Career and Technology Center, Allison Joye, said, “Danielle has been at ACTC in the Cosmetology program for three years and in that time you form close bonds with students and they become like one of your own. Danielle was a smart, energetic student that was looking forward to a bright future in cosmetology. She was a very talented and gifted young lady. The cosmetology class just seemed to come naturally to her. Danielle will be truly missed not just with her classmates and myself, but from anyone one who had the true pleasure of knowing her and calling her a friend. In cosmetology we are not just friends, we are family and the loss of one of our own touches us all greatly. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and loved ones.”
Jane Harrison, Assistant Superintendent said, “Counselors are onsite at the school this morning if students and teachers need support. A banner was placed in the commons for students and teachers to remember Danielle. She attended Concrete Primary, Powdersville Elementary and Powdersville Middle.”
Anderson One also mourns the loss of Kayla Mann, former Wren graduate. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families including Mick Brown, Powdersville High graduate currently in the hospital,” said Harrison.
Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said speed was a factor in the accident which remains under investigation.
Williams was the only one wearing a seat belt, according to the SC Hwy. Patrol.
Williams was driving on Langston Road near Interstate 85 when she ran off the left side of the highway, according to Cpl. Bill Rhyne of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
The car, a 10-year-old two-door, went down an embankment and into a wooded area.
Williams, Mann and Jones were all pinned in the car and died of blunt force trauma, according to the Anderson County Coroner.
Shore said the friends had been to Walmart and were headed to McDonald’s near Piedmont when the crash occurred. He said that another car with young people in it was behind Williams, and all of them planned to meet at the restaurant.
