A man who spent years of his life rushing to save others on their worst days didn’t get that same chance when it mattered most. Joseph “Jody” Ray Clardy Jr., a 56-year-old Anderson man and former paramedic, was killed early Friday morning on Highway 413 in Anderson County, South Carolina, after his motorcycle was struck by a pickup truck making a left turn in front of him.
Jody was out riding his 2018 Harley-Davidson, heading toward Belton on Highway 413, when a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 cut across his path trying to turn left onto Haynie Drive. The collision was violent enough to throw Jody clean off his bike. When emergency crews from Rock Springs Fire Department, Medshore Ambulance Service, Anderson County EMS, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, and the South Carolina Highway Patrol showed up at that intersection, they found him lying unconscious on the ground. Paramedics worked on him right there on the scene, but there was nothing more they could do. Jody was pronounced dead at the scene.
What hits differently about this story is who Jody was before that Friday morning. He wasn’t just some guy out on a ride. He was a former paramedic with Medshore Ambulance Service — the very same service that responded to his crash. For years, that man showed up for strangers in their darkest hours, doing everything humanly possible to pull people back from the edge. And when it was his turn to need saving, the situation was already too far gone.
The Anderson County Coroner’s Office confirmed that Jody died from multiple traumatic injuries caused by the collision and ruled the crash an accident. He was 56 years old.
The driver of the Silverado, Nelson Daniel Cooley, didn’t walk away from this without consequences. Authorities charged him with felony DUI resulting in death. That charge alone tells you a lot about what investigators believe happened on that stretch of road.
People who knew Jody in the Anderson community haven’t been quiet about what he meant to them. The kind of man who dedicates his working life to emergency medicine isn’t someone folks forget easily. He was one of those people who ran toward trouble while everyone else ran away, and that reputation clearly stuck with the people he served alongside and the community he called home.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol is still actively investigating the crash as evidence continues to be reviewed. For now, Anderson County is left sitting with the loss of a man who gave a whole lot to his community, and the painful irony that the very people he once worked with were the ones who responded to the scene where he took his last breath.
