PICKENS — Tragedy struck the Pickens community Friday, when two people lost their lives and three others were injured in a vehicle accident on Pumpkintown Highway just outside city limits.

Killed were a Pickens County Department of Social Services worker and a child in DSS care.
Chrystal Nicole Harrison, 36, of Keoway Drive in Seneca, and 9-year-old Raven Alania Stancell, a third-grade student at Ambler Elementary School, were pronounced dead at the scene of the collision.
According to South Carolina Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Bill Rhyne, the accident occurred at 4:20 p.m. on S.C. Highway 8, also known as Pumpkintown Highway.

According to Rhyne, a state-owned 2008 Impala driven by Harrison and traveling away from Pickens with three passengers inside was struck by a 1992 GMC Sierra pick-up truck heading toward Pickens.
Officers with the highway patrol believe the Sierra, driven by Julie Melton Mason, 45, of Marietta, crossed the center line and hit the Impala in the left side.

Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley pronounced Harrison and Stancell dead at the scene, while the other two passengers in the Impala were seriously injured and transported to Greenville Memorial Hospital, one by helicopter. The two survivors transported to GMH were reportedly Stancell’s brothers, aged 15 and 17.

Kelley said all passengers in the Impala were wearing seatbelts.
Mason, the driver of the truck, was also taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital.
The accident closed Pumpkintown Highway for nearly six hours on Friday.
The SCHP said the accident is still under investigation by their Multidisciplinary Action Investigation Team.