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This week’s traffic fatalities near Pendleton and Greenville pushed the year’s statewide death toll to 566, up from 554 a year earlier, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Pedestrian deaths are a primary factor in the increase, despite a campaign aimed specifically at reducing such fatalities, authorities said. Motorcycle-related deaths are also rising, they said.

The wrecks near Pendleton and Greenville each involved a single car that went off the left side road in the early morning hours, said Trooper Billy Elder.

The youngest of the three people killed on West Queen Street near Pendleton on Sunday was 3-year-old William Ray Woods, the son of the only survivor, 32-year-old Meagan Woods, who was taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., said Anderson County Deputy Coroner Charlie Boseman said.

Troopers have not answered who was driving or how fast the car was going, saying the case remains under investigation.

In the Greenville-area wreck, two men were killed on White Horse Road at 1:05 a.m., Elder said. The driver, Ivan Lucio-DeAnda, 22, and passenger Hipolito Aldana-Garrido, 25, were from Greensboro, Ga. and in the Greenville area for work, said Greenville County Deputy Coroner Kent Dill.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/gY1c81g98pA/State-highway-fatalities-ahead-last-year