A Toddler’s Death in North Charleston Shows Why Criminal Charges Aren’t the End of the Story
A hit and run case out of North Charleston has resulted in two arrests, but criminal charges rarely settle the financial and legal questions that follow the death of a child. When a two-year-old girl was struck and killed near Rivers Avenue and Eagle Drive earlier this month, the aftermath touched on two separate areas of South Carolina law that often get confused with each other.
What Investigators Say Happened
North Charleston Police responded to a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle on the evening of September 9. Officers found the child dead at the scene. The investigation led detectives to a vehicle registered nearby, and the driver was located and questioned the following day. She told officers she had heard a noise while driving through the area but did not stop, according to police. She now faces charges of reckless homicide and leaving the scene of an accident involving death. Separately, the child’s guardian was also arrested after investigators disputed the account given about how the child came to be in the roadway, and now faces a charge related to unlawful conduct toward a child.
Two Legal Tracks, Two Different Purposes
Criminal charges exist to punish a violation of the law and to protect the public. A wrongful death claim exists for an entirely different reason: to compensate a family for the financial and emotional devastation caused by a preventable death. These two tracks run on separate timelines, use different standards of proof, and can produce very different outcomes.
South Carolina’s duty to stop statute, S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-1210, requires any driver involved in a crash that causes injury or death to stop immediately and remain at the scene. A driver who claims she did not realize what happened is not automatically shielded from civil liability just because she avoids a conviction, since a civil case only requires a preponderance of the evidence rather than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Could the Guardian’s Actions Complicate a Civil Claim?
This case adds a layer that families do not always expect. If a guardian’s supervision is later found to have contributed to the circumstances of the crash, that finding could become relevant to how fault is divided in a civil case. South Carolina’s comparative fault framework under S.C. Code Ann. § 15-38-15 allows responsibility to be apportioned among more than one party. That does not eliminate a claim against the driver who failed to stop, but it is exactly the kind of complication a family should not have to untangle without help.
Contact a Charleston Pedestrian Accident Attorney for Help
Every family in this situation deserves answers that go beyond a police report and a court date. Our team at Mickelsen Dalton LLC has spent years helping South Carolina families pursue accountability after the sudden loss of a child, and we know how to separate what happened in the criminal case from what a family is owed in a civil one. If you have lost a loved one in a hit and run, talk to the Charleston pedestrian accident attorneys at our firm before assuming the criminal case is the only avenue for justice.
Sources:
live5news.com/2026/09/11/2-year-old-girl-killed-north-charleston-hit-and-run-suspect-arrested/
scstatehouse.gov/code/t56c005.php
