CHARLESTON, S.C. — A South Carolina man whose wife was killed by an alleged drunk driver just hours after their wedding on Folly Beach has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging the suspect was "bar hopping" throughout the day before the deadly wreck.
Samantha Hutchinson, 34, was killed when the golf cart she and her new husband were riding with two family members was hit by a driver going approximately 65 mph. Aric Hutchinson suffered serious injuries in the crash, including two broken legs, brain injuries and multiple broken bones in his face.
A lawsuit filed by Hutchinson names several businesses, claiming that Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, began at El Gallo Bar and Grill near Daniel Island before making her way to Folly Beach, where she stopped at several bars. Komoroski visited the Drop In, The Crab Shack and Snapper Jacks along Center Street in Folly Beach, the suit alleges.
Komoroski was charged with reckless homicide and DUI involving death. Danny Dalton, the attorney representing Hutchinson and two family members in the lawsuit, alleges these businesses continued to serve Komoroski despite being "visibly intoxicated." A toxicology report showed Komoroski's blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit of 0.08.
"The state grants restaurants and bars a license for the privilege to serve alcohol, and with that privilege comes a responsibility to the community to serve patrons responsibly and to deny service to individuals who are visibly intoxicated," Dalton said in a statement.
The lawsuit also alleges Komoroski's new supervisor of "organizing, arranging and supervising an employee function knowing that excessive amounts of alcoholic beverages would be purchased for, served to, and consumed by the employees attending the function."
Lisa Miller, Samantha's mother, told NBC's "Today" show this week that she talked with her son-in-law in the hospital after the crash. It was then that she shared her daughter's final words with the world.
"She looked at him on a golf cart and said, "I want this day, this evening, to last forever,'" Miller said.
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