MOUNT PLEASANT — The Charleston County coroner’s Office has identified the bicyclist killed in a collision on Long Point Road the afternoon of May 22.
In a post on X, Mount Pleasant police said Long Point Road heading toward the Wando Welch Terminal was closed at the interchange with Interstate 526 due to a collision resulting in injuries. The roadway opened about two hours after the collision.
In a May 23 news release, the coroner’s office identified the victim as 33-year-old Mackensey Griffiths of Mount Pleasant. The release said the crash occurred around 12:18 p.m. and that Griffiths died an hour after the crash at the Medical University of South Carolina. Mount Pleasant police are investigating the collision.
Long Point Road is a heavily-trafficked thoroughfare and the primary road leading to the Wando Welch Terminal.
Local nonprofit Charleston Moves has been advocating for stronger infrastructure along Charleston County roadways to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety since 1993. Executive Director Katie Zimmerman received word about the fatal Long Point Road incident from a fellow board member.
The board member had been driving along the roadway when they saw the struck bicyclist taken away on a stretcher. The board member reached out to Zimmerman to notify her immediately after.
“This is yet another horrific example — (the county) has got to get pedestrian and bicycle-safe paths in place,” Zimmerman told The Post and Courier.
For years, both Charleston Moves and the Town of Mount Pleasant have been of the same mindset that infrastructure change is necessary, Zimmerman said. The issue of implementing these changes ultimately comes down to funding complications.
The onus of funding roadway safety initiatives falls upon several different governmental entities, including Charleston County and the State Department of Transportation. While the funds for these sorts of projects don’t exist outright in their entireties, governmental bodies can change how they allocate existing monies, Zimmerman said.
“(Agencies) have to start investing differently,” Zimmerman said. “We’re losing people in the interim.”
