CHARLESTON

A deadly stretch of U.S. 17 between Beaufort and Charleston will get more attention from the S.C. Highway Patrol.

Gov. Mark Sanford is expected on Monday to announce details of the state’s plans to step up enforcement along the busy road. The 22-mile stretch of highway in Colleton and Beaufort counties varies between two and four lanes and has been the scene of a series of serious accidents.

More than 448 people have been injured since 2001 along the road between Jacksonboro and Gardens Corner. State officials are looking at widening the road.

SUMTER

• Deputies say police chief didn’t cause fatal crash

Manning Police Chief Randy Garrett did not cause a suspect leading officers on a high-speed chase to slam his car into a parked Highway Patrol cruiser, killing the trooper inside, Sumter County deputies say.

Garrett, who was leading the May 16 chase, was a half-mile behind 34-year-old Eric Shawn Ridel on S.C. 527 when Ridel ran off the road and hit Senior Trooper Jonathan Parker’s car, sheriff’s Lt. Jamie Turner said. “He was not forced off the road by anybody else,” Turner said.

Garrett and other officers had been chasing Ridel following a Walterboro robbery. The chase continued up Interstate 95 and U.S. 378 before ending on Highway 527.

Garrett called rumors he caused the crash “untrue and politically motivated.” He said he has cooperated fully with the investigation and cannot wait to testify against Ridel, which could happen as soon as Tuesday’s scheduled probable-cause hearing.

Contributing: The Associated Press

• Eight rescued from river after canoes overturn

Firefighters rescued eight people from the Congaree River on Saturday after their rented canoes flipped on the river swelled with rain from Tropical Storm Cindy.

Four people clung to a tree on the Lexington County side of the Blossom Street bridge, and two more held to trees in the middle of the river halfway between the Blossom and Gervais Street bridges. Two more were pulled out at the Gervais Street bridge. The Blossom Street bridge was closed for 30 minutes during the rescue effort.

It was a group of friends who had made the same trip annually for 10 years. Four of the six boats flipped at the Gervais Street bridge, and the current swept them downstream. “Most of the time we have to drag the boats under the Gervais Street bridge,” said Sam Carver, 36, of Clemson, whose boat did not flip. “Just before you get to the Gervais Street bridge, it just turned into a rapid.”

• Microwave sparks fire that destroys mobile home

A fire destroyed a mobile home in eastern Richland County on Saturday after a woman left her microwave running after making popcorn.

Capt. Wayne Lucas with the Columbia Fire Department said the woman got her popcorn out and left, but the microwave kept going. The fire caused about $75,000 damage at 123 Country Haven Road.

It took firefighters about two hours to get the blaze under control because they had to stop fighting the fire several times to search for the homeowner, who neighbors thought was still inside. “A lot of people don’t realize if you run a microwave for a long period of time without anything in it, it will self-combust,” Lucas said.

Contributing: Adam Beam