COLUMBIA — S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal was ticketed Thursday after striking an unoccupied parked car at Columbia Metropolitan Airport and leaving the scene, Lexington County Sheriff’s deputies confirmed this morning.
Sheriff’s spokesman Maj. John Allard said Toal, 63, of Columbia, was issued a ticket by his department after she returned to the scene. She was not arrested, he said.
“Usually, we don’t make custodial arrests for an accident like that,” he said.
The incident occurred Thursday afternoon, Allard said. He couldn’t provide details of the accident or the exact charge, noting he was awaiting a report from the department’s traffic supervisor.
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Allard said because the struck vehicle is owned by an airport employee, airport Police Chief Randy Blackmon asked Sheriff James Metts to handle the investigation.
In 2001, Toal was ticketed for leaving the scene of an accident and driving too fast for conditions after her car sideswiped a parked car on Wheat Street near her home. She paid $300 in fines.
Toal said then she did not realize she had hit the car until a police officer showed her damage to her Chrysler Town and Country minivan.
A police report indicated that Toal had been drinking that night, but her blood-alcohol content was not tested.
Toal denied that she’d been drunk at the time of the crash.
Contacted this morning, Toal said she was in a meeting and could not immediately comment.
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