The husband of a bride who was killed in a South Carolina beach road crash on their wedding night last year will receive nearly a million dollars in a financial settlement connected to the wreck, which a drunk driver allegedly caused.
The Post and Courier reported that Aric Hutchinson will receive about $863,300 from Folly Beach, South Carolina, bars the Drop In Bar & Deli, the Crab Shack and Snapper Jacks; Progressive auto insurance; and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, according to a settlement approved earlier this week by the Charleston county circuit court judge Roger Young.
Hutchinson sued the businesses after driver Jamie Lee Komoroski crashed a rented car into a golf cart carrying him and his new bride, 34-year-old Samantha Miller, away from their wedding reception on 28 April 2023.
The golf cart was thrown 100 yards (91.44 meters). Miller died at the scene, still wearing her wedding dress. Hutchinson survived with a brain injury and multiple broken bones. Komoroski was driving 65mph (104.6km/h) on a 25mph road, the newspaper reported.
Hutchinson claimed in the wrongful death lawsuit that Komoroski had “slurred and staggered” across several bars around Folly Beach before speeding in her Toyota Camry with a blood-alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit.
The settlements amount to $1.3m but will total less than that after attorney and legal fees are paid.
Komoroski is out on bond as her case makes its way through the court system. In September, she was charged with felony driving under the influence resulting in death, reckless homicide and two counts of felony driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury.
In March, the New York Post obtained a recording of a jail house telephone call during which Komoroski told her sister she expected to soon “be living [her] best life” despite facing up to 25 years in prison if convicted as charged.
“It’s so funny because when you’re in a bad situation, you’re so upset and you’re distraught,” Komoroski said on the call on 8 October, according to the Post. “But in the future when you see your future self looking back at that time, you wish you could tell yourself in that moment: ‘Stop freaking out, stop crying, it’s going to be OK. You’re happy now. And there’s no point being so upset. Everything is going to work out.’
“No matter how bad it is in the moment. It’s going to work out.”
The Guardian contributed reporting
