Car dealer OC Welch is calling on the governor of South Carolina to make deadly sections of US Highway 17 safer. On July 14, Welch and his son were involved in wreck on the highway near the Talmadge Bridge. Their vehicle hit an oncoming car when the driver lost control as he tried to avoid rear-ending another car.

The crash killed one woman and injured several others.

Now Welch says it's up to Gov. Mark Sanford to prevent future serious wrecks. He's gone very public with his demands. You can't miss his new billboard if you are driving over to South Carolina on 17.

Welch calls it "Killer 17." As you can see from his billboard, he's asking the governor, "How many must die before you make this road safe?"

Welch says he and his son Chip are "the lucky ones."

"I feel like we cheated death," he said. "I feel like we should've been killed in that accident."

Almost every day, Welch and his family take Highway 17 from their home in Savannah to their business in Beaufort. So far they've seen no one do anything to improve the road.

"It's tough to deal with day after day after day," Welch told us.

He and many others say the problem with the road is there are too many cars going too fast on just two lanes of highway. "There's just no way to get out of the way," said Welch. "They need to add a passing lane, as soon as possible."

And he wants more police to patrol the area. The governor's officers say they can and will do that. But as for the road widening, that project isn't slated to begin until 2007.

Welch worries that may be too late. He says he doubts many of the state officials ever drive this stretch of Highway 17, so this is his way of getting their attention.

Reported by: Michelle Paynter, mpaynter@wtoc.com