Bluffton drunk driver pleads guilty in deadly 4-vehicle crash at Buckwalter Parkway
A Bluffton man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of driving under the influence after his speedy, impaired driving caused a four-vehicle collision and killed a motorcyclist at a notoriously dangerous intersection last summer.
Carlos Mauricos Acosta Galvez, 40, received 20 years in prison for the fatal DUI charge. He will be credited for the 398 days served at the Beaufort County Detention Center before trial, bringing his sentence to just under 19 years.
Galvez was also convicted of causing “great bodily injury” to the driver of a Mercedes SUV, who was hospitalized after firefighters used extrication equipment to remove him from his totaled vehicle. His 15-year sentence for that charge and a three-year sentence for an unrelated misdemeanor count of domestic violence will run concurrently with his primary 20-year sentence.
The Aug. 6, 2023 crash killed 54-year-old Ridgeland man Marc Garrity, who was struck by Galvez’s vehicle while turning from Buckwalter Parkway onto U.S. 278 in a Honda motorcycle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Prosecutors say Galvez caused the collision while driving over 100 mph on U.S. 278 — nearly twice the highway’s speed limit of 55 mph — and had a blood-alcohol content of .169. He slammed into the Mercedes, causing it to strike the motorcyclist and the motorcycle to crash into a Chevrolet, according to a Thursday afternoon press release from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Officials from the Bluffton Township Fire District, Bluffton Police Department, SC Highway Patrol, Beaufort County EMS and Beaufort County Coroner’s Office responded to a fatal crash the evening of Aug. 8, 2023 at the intersection of Buckwalter Parkway and U.S. 278.
Galvez did not give a breath sample at the scene of the crash because he was one of two people taken to Savannah’s Memorial Health University Medical Center with injuries, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. He was arrested following his discharge from the hospital and formally charged 10 days later.
“The facts in this case made it clear Mr. Galvez had absolutely no regard for the value of human life,” said Assistant Solicitor Sara Malone, who prosecuted the case.
In March 2024, Galvez also pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina for reentering the country after already being deported. He will not serve additional jail time for the federal conviction but will be deported once his state prison sentence is completed.
Data shows the crossing of Fording Island Road and Buckwalter Parkway is one of the most dangerous intersections in Beaufort County, with at least 66 collisions in the area between 2020 and mid-2024. Garrity was one of eight people killed at the intersection in the same period.
One car involved in the four-vehicle crash on Aug. 6, 2023 veered into the grass alongside the eastbound lanes of U.S. 278.
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