Husband remembers wife killed in SC wedding crash: ‘She’s up there smiling’
FOLLY BEACH, SC (WCSC) — A man is mourning the loss of his newlywed bride as he continues to recover from the wedding night crash.
On Saturday, the community held a vigil for a newlywed bride killed in an alleged D-U-I crash that ended her life. Her widow, Aric Hutchinson, is speaking out for the first time remembering his now late wife.
While still wearing her wedding dress — Samantha Miller died in Folly Beach on April 28 when a vehicle rear-ended a golf cart, carrying Miller, her husband, and two others.
“It really is a tragedy for Folly Beach, and we’re all grieving with the family,” Tara Novit said.
At least a hundred people gathered on Folly Beach Saturday morning, including Miller’s husband visiting the very beach the couple was married on for the first time since the crash.
Hutchinson, sat on the shoreline in a wheelchair after sustaining a brain injury and multiple broken bones after the golf cart was thrown 100 yards.
“Getting back to where I can manage, I guess. It’s just as good as I can feel with the situation,” Hutchinson said.
Friends, family and members of the Folly Beach community paddled out into the water to honor Samantha’s life by throwing flowers into the ocean with “Sam” written on the stems.
“She would’ve loved it,” Hutchinson said. “This is Sam. I mean, she’s a beach girl, through and through. We do walk here almost every morning, and this is her send off for sure. She’s up there smiling for sure.”
Locally, Hutchinson says the people of Folly Beach, some that had no connection to the couple, have donated food during his recovery, as well as showing love and prayers.
“It’s a little overwhelming; but it’s, I mean, they’re sincere, genuine, good-hearted people that are just reaching out that felt a reason to, or somehow they were touched by Sam. It just means the world. She left that impact,” Hutchinson said.
One woman who surfs on Folly Beach and helped organize the event — says the community treats everyone like one big family.
“All the golf carts, you know, it’s all part of the Foley living. So I think I’m hoping that maybe this can make some, some good positive changes, so that everybody can feel safe and beyond the roads, and I’m sad that it sometimes it takes a tragedy like this, to make that change happen,” Novit said.
Thousands of people from all over the country have donated to the GoFundMe page to help pay for Samantha’s burial and medical costs for Aric and his family.
As of Saturday, the page has now raised over 719,000-dollars.
The driver of the vehicle that struck the golf cart was arrested and identified by police as Jamie Komoroski. Komoroski was traveling at a speed of 65 miles per hour when the accident occurred, police say.
