Woman claims ‘negligent design’ of crosswalk led to Five Points hit-and-run
- SCCLR Newsletter
- Apr 23
- 2 min read
By: WIS News 10 Staff and Tanner Gilmartin
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) — A woman claims the City of Columbia and the South Carolina Department of Transportation are liable for a crash that left her hurt last fall.
Public court records show Maya Trowbridge filed suit against the city and SCDOT on April 17. Trowbridge claims she was hit by a vehicle on Oct. 31, 2025, while using a crosswalk on Harden Street in front of Eddie’s Calzones. Trowbridge was a student at the University of South Carolina at the time of the crash.
Trowbridge claims she and a friend were waved along by the first car that appeared and they began to cross the street. As they crossed, Trowbridge said she was then hit by a “large black vehicle,” with the impact causing her to flip in the air and land forcefully on the pavement.
Trowbridge was hospitalized for two days with multiple fractures, a hematoma and a contusion, according to the lawsuit.
The driver of the vehicle, identified in the complaint as Ron Vinson, reportedly stopped briefly before leaving the scene. Court records show he was later arrested and charged with hit-and-run and failure to yield. He has since been released on bond. WIS has requested more information about Vinson’s arrest from the Columbia Police Department.
Trowbridge’s lawsuit, meanwhile, suggests the city and SCDOT also share responsibility for the crash due to what she claims is “negligent design, installation and maintenance of the crosswalk.” The claims also include what Trowbridge called a failure to implement safety measures, such as warning devices visible to drivers that would not require pedestrians to locate and press what she called “an inadequately marked pushbutton device.”
The complaint also specifically claims that her injuries were a result of what she called SCDOT’s “negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and/or willful and wanton conduct.”