Sober or Slammer

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The state Highway Patrol is trying to send a message to motorists: Drive sober or you'll wind up in jail.

To reinforce that message, state troopers and local police banded together recently to increase patrols on back roads and secondary roads with a history of DUI incidents. On some evenings, they established a few checkpoints as well.

Those heightened efforts are part of "Sober or Slammer" campaign. The initiative certainly is worthwhile for a state with the highest rate of DUI fatalities in the nation. The first phase of Sober or Slammer spanned the 2002 Christmas and New Year's holidays.

But the Highway Patrol doesn't have enough troopers to maintain the intensive campaign for more than a few weeks at a time. State lawmakers have slashed the Highway Patrol's budget to levels that AAA-Carolinas calls "unconscionable." Troopers also are operating with an aging vehicle fleet, and trooper pay is close to miserable.

The number of troopers on patrol may dip to 800 this year — 200 less than the number of troopers on the road 15 years ago. During those years, the number of vehicles on South Carolina roads has increased by 1 million. Troopers complain about running from wreck to wreck and having little time for catching speeders or drunks.

Sober or Slammer certainly is constructive, but it's going to take a much stronger commitment from the Legislature for the state to substantially reduce the menace of drunk driving in South Carolina.