Inset: Melvin Otto Lamb, III (Al Cannon Detention Center). Background: The area in South Carolina where Lamb caused a fatal car wreck (WCIV).
A 32-year-old man in South Carolina is going to prison for causing a deadly multi-vehicle car wreck when he crashed into the back of a stopped car, failing to stop because he was scrolling through social media and online dating apps.
Ninth Judicial Circuit Judge Roger M. Young, Sr., on Monday ordered Melvin Otto Lamb to serve three to five years in a state correctional institution followed by an additional five years of probation. Young handed down the sentence after Lamb pleaded guilty to one count of reckless homicide in connection with the fatal crash, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the office of Solicitor Scarlett A. Wilson, Lamb entered his plea just minutes before his jury trial was scheduled to begin.
The felony conviction stems from a June 12, 2021, crash in Mount Pleasant involving nine cars that left one person dead.
According to prosecutors, Lamb was driving a 2008 Chevy Tahoe northbound on Highway 17 near Hamlin Road when he slammed into a stopped 2019 Chevrolet Trax that had been “waiting for the light change at that intersection.” The impact triggered a chain-reaction crash involving nine vehicles.
Crash data revealed Lamb was traveling at 68 mph — well above the posted 45 mph speed limit — and continued at that speed “for the five seconds before impacting the victim’s vehicle — without turning or applying the brakes at any point,” the release states.
Investigators later determined distraction played a central role.
“Lamb’s admissions and a subsequent search of his phone showed that he had been swiping through Tinder, Snapchat, and using Spotify leading up to the crash,” prosecutors said. Lamb himself “admitted not knowing what happened in the crash because he had been looking at his telephone.”
Emergency medical personnel transported Lamb and the victim to the Medical University of South Carolina. The victim later succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash while Lamb was treated and released with only minor injuries.
The Mount Pleasant Police Traffic Division investigated the crash with assistance from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.
