CROSS KEYS — A Union man ended up head over heels, literally, following an accident Tuesday morning residents in the area say might have been averted if more safety measures were in place on Cross Keys Highway (SC Highway 49).

The Cross Keys Fire Department, South Carolina Highway Patrol and Union County EMS responded to a report of a pickup rolled over in a ravine about 10 miles south of Union about 8:40 a.m.

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found the driver of a 2004 silver Dodge pickup outside his vehicle that had traveled off the highway and ended up upside down in a ravine about 12-feet deep across the road from a Union County recycling center.

According to the accident report cited by SCHP Region 1 Public Relations Officer Cpl. Bryan McDougald, the driver of the pickup, Donald Kingsmore, 45, Union, was traveling north on Cross Keys Highway and coming around a curve when he fell asleep. The pickup traveled off the highway, down an embankment on the right hand side of the highway and overturned before coming to rest in the ravine adjacent to the property at 3945 Cross Keys Highway.

Fortunately, Kingsmore — who was wearing his seat belt — was uninjured in the incident and was able to exit the vehicle himself before emergency personnel arrived on scene.

Incident command officer William Mosley with the Cross Keys Fire Department said the Dodge pickup went off the highway about 75 yards from where it eventually came to rest, driving through underbrush and tree growth before reaching the ravine.

Greer’s Wrecker Service Inc. was dispatched to the scene to extract the pickup from the ravine. A resident of the area where the accident occurred also came with a tractor to assist in eventually pulling the truck out.

No damage estimate for the 2004 Dodge was available. Kingsmore was cited for driving too fast for conditions.

Residents of the Cross Keys area — who were on scene watching as responders extracted the pickup from the ravine — say the accident might have been averted had additional safety measures been in place on that stretch of Highway 49.

Cynthia Armstrong of 3865 Cross Keys Highway, just down the road from where the incident occurred, and Crystal Grady who lives at the residence adjacent to the ravine where Kingsmore’s truck landed, each said a guard rail on the east side of the highway and perhaps a lower speed limit could help reduce the number and severity of accidents in that area.

“I’ve always been scared someone would end up in my front yard with my kids,” Grady said.

Her four children — ages 8-14 — often play in her front yard. Her 8-year-old twin girls often ride their bicycles to their grandmother’s house down the road.

A car hit a tree in Grady’s mother-in-law’s front yard just a year ago.

“They’re the ones who play in the yard all the time,” Grady said.

She and Armstrong agreed there’s been an increase in traffic in the Cross Keys area since the county’s recycling center was put up there a few years ago but said the stretch of Highway 49 has always been treacherous.

Mosley said Cross Keys Highway is a thoroughfare for semi-tractor trailers going to or coming from Interstate 26. And while an increase in traffic mingled with that many large trucks on the same stretch of highway doesn’t necessarily mean more accidents in the area, Cross Keys firefighter Josh Woods said those that do happen in that area are bad.

“There’s not many, but if there are they’re pretty bad,” Woods said.

The posted speed limit through the Cross Keys area is 55 miles per hour. Grady and Armstrong said it’s hard to stop quickly coming around the curve there at 55 or 65 miles per hour. They think a lower speed limit — like 35 or 45 miles per hour — and perhaps a guard rail would improve safety conditions for residents of the area and drivers alike.

“It’s a bad curve,” Grady said. “People fly through here.”