>>PROVIDING ASSISTANCE ON S.C. ROADS

The $4.1 million question

Is the price tag taxpayers pay for the state's Incident Response Teams too much to help make our roads safer?

By David Wren

The Sun News

A program created a decade ago to improve safety on South Carolina's busiest roads duplicates services widely available in the private sector, and that has some people wondering whether its $4.1 million annual price tag is a bargain for state taxpayers.

Police and emergency officials say the state's Incident Response Teams are needed because they help direct traffic after accidents and in times of crisis, such as a hurricane evacuation.

Others say the response teams, a division of the S.C. Department of Transportation, could operate more efficiently by following the examples set by highway assistance patrols in other states.

The response teams direct traffic, remove debris from roadways and assist stranded motorists, allowing the S.C. Highway Patrol to keep its officers on the road instead of waiting with those motorists for a private tow truck or other help to arrive.

"They do phenomenal work." said Sonny Collins, a Highway Patrol spokesman. "We can certainly use our time better patrolling than waiting with someone on the side of the road."

Statistics show the teams, which operate in nine metro areas, including Myrtle Beach, spend more than two-thirds of their time assisting disabled vehicles. Fixing flat tires and giving motorists free gas are the most frequent services provided.

Other frequent services include putting water in overheated radiators, letting motorists make calls for help from the response teams' cell phones, jump-starting dead batteries and giving directions.

Motorists do not pay directly for any of the services the teams provide because the program is supported by public money the DOT gets from taxes and other fees.

As service has expanded to new markets in recent years, so has the program's budget - growing by an average of 16.5 percent annually between 2002-05, the most recent statistics available.

The program cost a record $4.1 million last year, and has cost taxpayers $14 million since 2002, according to the DOT.

"Is that really the best use of public money in a state that's more than $300 million behind in maintenance of roads and improving highways?" said AAA Carolinas spokesman Tom Crosby. AAA provides many of the same services as the Incident Response Teams, but only to the 500,000 South Carolinians who pay an annual fee for the service.

"Should the state be responsible if you run out of gas or your battery isn't charged?" Crosby said. "Getting help to people on the road is a good thing, but I'm not sure it's better than fixing all the roads that need repaving."

Unnecessary service?

One of the program's main goals - getting stranded or wrecked vehicles out of the roadway so traffic can flow smoothly - was not an issue in 77.7 percent of responses statewide last year, according to DOT statistics, because vehicles already were off the road or in the median when the teams arrived to help.

Traffic control, another primary reason the teams were created, was listed as a provided service in just 5.2 percent of responses statewide last year, according to DOT statistics.

The availability of service is limited to a few primary roads in each metro area and only during daytime hours, a time when critics say private help is readily available.

The Myrtle Beach team, for example, patrols four roads - U.S. 17, U.S. 501, S.C. 22 and S.C. 31 - between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays. That service is reduced to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, two of the heaviest travel days during the summer tourism season.

If motorists are stranded when the response teams aren't working, they must leave their cars until the next day or call for private assistance.

Clint Whitehurst, a transportation expert with the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs at Clemson University, said such roadside assistance might be better served by AAA or other private automobile repair businesses.

"Whenever there's an opportunity for the private sector to respond, I'm all for it," Whitehurst said. "The private sector has proven to be more efficient than government since time immemorial."

The team's equipment

The Myrtle Beach team, which operates out of the former Sparks Toyota dealership off U.S. 501, has five responders and five blue trucks equipped with air compressors and wrenches, mat jacks, overhead signals for traffic control, radios, tools and other emergency equipment.

Norman Joyce, a five-year veteran of the response team, said he drives about 80,000 miles each year patrolling the Grand Strand's roads. The heavy-duty Chevrolet trucks are serviced every two or three weeks and usually last three years, or about 225,000 miles, before they are put to other uses.

The team has 50 five-gallon gas cans in storage for use during a hurricane evacuation.

"We want to avoid what happened during Hurricane Katrina," Joyce said, referring to the traffic jams that occurred when vehicles ran out of gas trying to leave New Orleans.

The incident response team is located in the same building as DOT's traffic monitoring station, where television screens show traffic conditions on major roads throughout the Grand Strand. The 14 cameras that monitor traffic went online in November and can zoom in close enough to read license plates.

Although the monitoring station is a separate division of DOT and its funding is separate, the incident response team uses information gathered at the station to quickly locate accidents and traffic problems.

"Our main objective is to keep the highway clear," said Jim Bennett, director of the Myrtle Beach office. "Any time you have a lane blocked, it can tie up traffic for a long time."

The Myrtle Beach office is in its fifth year of operation. The team responded to 19,487 calls in its first four years, with 78 percent of them disabled or abandoned vehicles. Accidents accounted for 7.9 percent of responses, with calls regarding debris and fire rounding out the list.

The work can be dangerous, with many vehicle repairs and tire changes taking place just a few feet from busy roads.

"You have to be careful," Joyce said. "People are in heavy traffic, and they will flat run over you if they aren't paying attention. And they'll cuss you out in a heartbeat if they think you're blocking the road for no reason."

There also are bizarre aspects to the job, such as the weekly telephone calls from an Horry County resident who calls the team for free gas. The response team gives out-of-gas motorists a gallon of fuel, just enough to get them to the next service station.

"But if you figure $3 for a gallon of gas and this guy calls every week, that can add up," Joyce said.

However, most of the responses Joyce and other members of the response team get from motorists and survey cards are positive.

"A lot of people are amazed that we offer this service," Joyce said. "If they would let us accept tips, we could make good money."

Money well spent

Gary Loftus, director of the Center for Economic and Community Development at Coastal Carolina University and a former state highway commissioner, said he thinks the response teams are needed for traffic control and to relieve police from handling minor accidents.

Loftus said the response teams might want to rethink providing free gas and tire changes.

"Maybe it can be modified so it becomes more of a true incident response service, rather helping people who run out of gas," Loftus said. "If those guys are handling traffic so a state trooper can do other things, they're well worth it."

Loftus said he disagrees with AAA's contention that money for the response teams should be diverted to road projects.

"That $4.1 million would pay for less than a quarter-mile of a highway, or it could pave about eight miles of dirt road," Loftus said. "Why are we picking on a $4.1 million expenditure? Sure, we have other needs. But is the service worth $4.1 million a year? Yes."

That doesn't mean DOT shouldn't evaluate the service and see if there is room for improvement, Loftus said.

Learning by example

Similar highway assistance services in other states could provide examples of how S.C. could revamp the Incident Response Teams and save taxpayers money.

Florida's Turnpike in 2005 signed a two-year, $850,000 contract with State Farm Insurance, which provides 14 roadside assistance trucks for use on the 309-mile turnpike. The trucks are painted in State Farm colors and have the insurance company's logo.

"State Farm felt it was good advertising for them and it provided a good service to motorists," said Joanne Hurley, a spokeswoman for Florida's Turnpike.

The State Farm contract covers half of the $1.7 million annual cost for the roadside assistance program, which provides free minor repairs and first aid to travelers.

The turnpike also struck a deal with Martin Petroleum Corp., allowing the fuel company exclusive rights to provide gas to service stations along the highway in exchange for trucks, equipment and employees for the Florida Department of Transportation's Road Ranger program.

Tolls also help pay for roadside assistance and a call-box program in which emergency telephones are installed every mile along the turnpike. Hurley said the state received an average of 4,333 calls for motorist assistance each month in 2005. The call-box program cost $261,000 last year.

"Even with the advent of cell phones, motorists in Florida like our call boxes because there are a lot of breaks in [cell phone] coverage on the highway and during severe weather," Hurley said.

Whitehurst, the travel expert at the Strom Thurmond institute, said South Carolina might want to invest in a similar call-box program so stranded motorists could call for private help instead of having state employees respond for minor repairs. The call boxes could save money in the long run, Whitehurst said.

A tool for training

West Virginia's Courtesy Patrol provides 24-hour-a-day, year-round roadside assistance for free on 940 miles of highways in that state.

The program, started in 1998, is operated by a nonprofit group that gets $3.7 million annually from the state's Citizens Conservation Corps.

The courtesy patrol has relied on welfare-to-work participants and vocational-technical school students for much of its work force. Most and the workers move on to better jobs after one or two years of training.

Jennifer Douglas, the program's coordinator, said courtesy patrols serve a dual-purpose: helping motorists and giving workers skills they need to improve their financial status.

"Our strengths are in getting people job ready," Douglas said in an interview with Woman's View magazine, a W.Va.-based publication. "Some of our courtesy drivers have become counselors, mechanics, EMTs and LPNs. Some have chosen tourism-related jobs. Wherever they go, they are different people when they leave than when they come here."

Contact DAVID WREN at 626-0281 or dwren@thesunnews.com.

Beaufort County

Charleston

Cherokee County

Columbia

Florence

Myrtle Beach

Rock Hill

Upstate I-85

Source: S.C. DOT