A pursuit that began with a disturbance call in Spartanburg County stretched more than 30 miles across three counties before ending on Interstate 26 in Newberry County early Thursday morning, according to law enforcement accounts of the incident.
Deputies said a black Mercedes fled onto I-26 East, with the South Carolina Highway Patrol taking over the chase once it reached Laurens County. Authorities reported speeds reaching up to 140 mph before troopers deployed tire-deflation devices on the vehicle. Even with flattened tires, the driver kept moving between 50 and 100 mph through two active highway construction zones and past a weigh station, according to officials.
Investigators said the driver twice tried to strike Highway Patrol troopers with the vehicle during the pursuit. After the Mercedes struck a cable barrier in the median, spun around, and began traveling the wrong way in the eastbound lanes, a Newberry County Sheriff’s Office deputy drove his own cruiser into the vehicle to stop it before it could cause a head-on collision with oncoming traffic.
The driver, identified as 47-year-old Marcy Lynn Goddard of Moore, South Carolina, was taken to Newberry Health for treatment of minor cuts from broken glass before being booked. She faces charges that include attempted murder, failure to stop for blue lights, driving under the influence, resisting arrest with a deadly weapon, and endangering a highway worker.
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster defended the deputy’s decision to ram the fleeing vehicle, calling it a courageous act that placed the officer’s own safety at risk to protect other motorists. He said wrong-way driving on an interstate carries a high potential for fatal collisions and that the deputy recognized the danger and acted decisively to prevent a serious or deadly crash.
Because the South Carolina Highway Patrol was directly involved in the pursuit, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department has been brought in to conduct an independent investigation into the crash, a standard step when an agency involved in an incident cannot investigate itself. No additional details on the timeline for that review have been released.
The episode adds to a string of recent highway safety concerns along the I-26 corridor through the Midlands and Upstate, where construction zones already create narrower lanes and shifting traffic patterns. Local officials have not indicated whether the incident will prompt any additional enforcement or signage changes near the affected work zones in Newberry County.
