A Hanahan train hit and killed a pedestrian. Here’s what we know.

HANAHAN — A train passing through the area struck and killed a 53-year-old man in the early evening of March 27.

At around 5 p.m., Hanahan police responded to a portion of track near Northbrook Drive and Eagle Landing Boulevard to find a person dead, said Chief Rick Gebhardt. A CSX freight train had struck Bryon L. Hickmon and he was pronounced dead on the scene.

Authorities are currently attempting to determine Hickmon’s city of residence. There is a possibility the man was homeless, Berkeley County Coroner Darnell Hartwell told The Post and Courier.

The train was halted for nearly an hour and 45 minutes as officials surveyed the scene. 

Gebhardt said that Hickmon had been crossing the tracks outside of a designated railroad grade crossing, typically delineated by well-marked signage, symbols, flashing lights and, frequently, striped gates that close roadways to vehicle traffic.

The Federal Railroad Administration labels those who cross the tracks outside of grade crossings as “trespassers,” given they traversed the railway without implied permission. Taking shortcuts across tracks accounts for the majority of rail-related fatalities across the nation, according to the FRA.

While train-related deaths are relatively rare in South Carolina — especially compared to the rate of fatalities in traffic collisions — on average, trespassing accounts for over half of the fatalities yearly, according to a Post and Courier analysis of FRA data from 2015-2023.

Hickmon is one of a few to die by impact from a train in Berkeley County this year.

In the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day, 72-year-old Jesse Wallace was struck while walking across the tracks near near NAD Road in Goose Creek. The Hanahan Police Department was among several jurisdictions who responded to the scene.

Earlier this month, on March 13, 59-year-old William Jeffrey Foster was killed after an Amtrak train struck his vehicle on Altman Street in Moncks Corner. A 15-year-old girl was riding in the car as well and was rushed to an area hospital in critical condition, according to an incident report from the Moncks Corner Police Department.

Moncks Corner police Chief Lee Mixon told The Post and Courier she was “fighting for her life” at the Medical University of South Carolina on March 21.

Foster drove past and bypassed the grade-crossing gates that day, according to video surveillance obtained from the scene. Before his attempt to cross the tracks, six other vehicles had successfully gone past the gates and reached the other side, according to the report.