By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal

goliver@upstatetoday.com

PICKENS COUNTY — A 24-year-old Greenville man died Thursday evening after he was struck by a vehicle on Old Easley Highway.

Pickens County coroner Kandy Kelley said Brandon Charles Heaton, of Old Bent Bridge Road, was walking toward Easley on S.C. Highway 124 at approximately 6:15 p.m.

Kelley said Heaton was struck by a white van and pronounced dead at the scene 20 minutes later due to blunt-force trauma.

The accident is under investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Lance Cpl. David Jones identified the vehicle that struck Heaton as a 2001 Ford van. Jones said Heaton was attempting to cross the roadway at the time he was struck.

The driver, according to Jones, was wearing a seat belt and was not injured.

Heaton’s death was the second pedestrian death in Pickens County this month.

Anthony Lemont Bowser, 22, of Bowen Road, Easley, died after he was struck by a Jeep a little more than two weeks ago after the coroner’s office said he was lying in the eastbound lane of the roadway at the time of the accident.