BLACKSBURG, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Two people died in multi-car collisions on Interstate 85 South Thursday afternoon just across the South Carolina state border, according to Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler. 

The first collision occurred at 4:35 p.m. at mile marker 106. That’s where 56-year-old Leigh Ann Hamilton Marshall of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, was killed.  

Fowler reported that Marshall was headed south when she struck a retainer wall and then went back right into the path of a tractor-trailer that struck the SUV in the passenger side, trapping both Marshall and a front-seat passenger in the vehicle. Marshall was pronounced dead at the scene while the passenger was transported to Spartanburg Medical Center for treatment. 

The second collision occurred at 4:40 p.m. when another tractor-trailer struck a box-type truck that was stopped in the southbound lane due to the first collision. Fowler said the truck driver, 25-year-old Timothy Antonio McNeil of Charlotte, was pronounced dead at the scene.  

After making contact, the tractor-trailer dragged the truck several-hundred feet before the driver realized it was underneath. A passenger in the truck was transported to Spartanburg Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. 

Autopsies will be performed on both victims as part of the investigation into the fatal collisions. The incidents caused all the southbound lanes to be shut down, causing backups four miles into Cleveland County.

The Cleveland County Emergency Management previously told Queen City News three people had died from the accidents.