Susan M. Buckley Obituary, – The 60-year-old woman who died in a head-on collision on a local highway Friday night has been identified by the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office as Susan M. Buckley of Port Royal. Coroner David Ott confirmed her death at 10:13 p.m. on Friday. Buckley was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision, but it is uncertain which vehicle crossed into the oncoming lane.
The tragic incident occurred when Buckley was driving north on S.C. 170 in a 2008 Ford sedan, and another driver was heading south in a 2021 BMW SUV, as reported by Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. The vehicles collided head-on near the intersection of the highway with Old Bailey Road, approximately nine miles north of Bluffton town limits. While Buckley was pronounced dead at the scene, the SUV driver was transported to Beaufort Memorial Hospital with non-fatal injuries.
As of Monday morning, no obituary had been published for Buckley, and funeral arrangements had not been made public. Records show that she spent her early years in New Jersey before relocating to Hilton Head in the mid-1980s, eventually residing in Bluffton and Beaufort. An autopsy was being conducted Monday morning at the coroner’s facilities in Port Royal, according to Ott. The investigation into the fatal crash on Friday night is still ongoing by the SCHP.
