(Columbia) June 16, 2005 - A new report shows a higher rate of traffic deaths were speeding-related in South Carolina than in any other state in the past 20 years.
     
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the US Transportation Department released the report this week. It shows speeding was involved in nearly half of all fatal accidents in South Carolina from 1983 to 2002.
     
The report says 47% of South Carolina traffic deaths in 2002 were speeding-related. Kansas, Rhode Island and Connecticut ranked higher in 2002, but were below South Carolina for the period analyzed.

Highway Patrol commander Col. Russell Roark says it's one reason the Patrol is hosting community meetings this summer to inform citizens about the state's dangerous roads, "We will do everything we can to educate, but it's the responsibility of the public to drive in a defensive manner and obey speed limit and traffic laws."
    
The meetings are meant to change mindsets like that of Mitzi Hernandez-Valdez, "Sometimes I speed because I'm running late to work." Like many drivers, Hernandez-Valdez  says she feels comfortable pushing the limits, "You can get away with five miles per hour but not really ten."
    
Col. Roark says there is no cushion when it comes to cracking down on speeders, "It's impossible for us to write a ticket to everyone who speeds, there's more vehicles than law enforcement, so it'd be impossible to do that."
    
More help is on the way. The Highway Patrol will hire 100 new troopers come January. A fourth of them will be dedicated to patrolling high speed areas in the state. Roark says the strength in numbers will make a noticeable difference, "Certainly if you have higher visibility, the less opportunity to commit a crime or to drive inattentively or speed."

Roark says the majority of speed related deaths don't happen on highways, but on local roads near neighborhoods.

Reported by Angie Goff
Updated 10:27pm by BrettWitt with AP