A $585,000 federal grant will enable the S.C. Highway Patrol to have more troopers looking for drunken drivers this summer.

During what the patrol calls the “100 deadly days,” and perhaps beyond, troopers will be paid overtime to work on their regular off days and focus on alcohol and speeding citations.

The money comes through the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

“We want (people) to ... tell folks, ‘I saw three troopers out on the roads; we better watch out,’” said Highway Patrol Cpl. Kelley Hughes. “We hope to kind of scare folks into not driving drunk.”

Harry Ward, director of the state chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is encouraged by the extra manpower the grant would bring.

“I’m just delighted,” he said. “I wish it was year -round.”

According to 2001 NHTSA data, the latest available, drivers in only one other state were more likely to be involved in an alcohol-related fatal wreck than those in South Carolina.

Over the last five years, speed and alcohol-related violations have caused 44 percent of the state’s fatal crashes, according to Highway Patrol data.

“It’s not hard to get on the highway and catch someone speeding,” said Max Young, director of the Office of Highway Safety in the Department of Public Safety.

The program targets 18 counties, including Lexington, Richland and Sumter, as problematic areas for DUI and speeding crashes and fatalities.

“If we can lower the crashes, then it’s common sense that we can lower the fatalities. That’s a success,” said Col. Russell Roark, Highway Patrol commander.

The patrol locations were selected by looking at the number of collisions that resulted in serious injuries and fatalities.

Nighttime, between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., and holiday weekends are some of the periods on which the patrol focuses.

On a Friday night, for instance, troopers would set up a license checkpoint at an intersection where, in the past year, there have been multiple fatalities.

South Carolina has received federal grants for DUI enforcement before, but this is the first time the money has been used solely to pay troopers overtime.

Troopers typically work 80 to 86 hours within a two-week period. With the grant, those who volunteer are working an extra eight-hour shift on one of their rest days.

“Our troop continues to shrink, while our population continues to increase,” Roark said. “This grant allows us to raise the number of troopers on the roadways.”

A stipulation of the grant is that troopers working the DUI details cannot respond to service calls.

“It really frees you up a lot to do some good enforcement work,” Hughes, a 14-year veteran with the state patrol, said.

Ward said the grant augments overall efforts to make residents and tourists feel safe on the roads.

The Highway Patrol expects all the grant money will be spent by the end of September. Then the state Department of Public Safety will measure the success of the program by gathering data to see whether the use of overtime has increased citations issued and affected the number of crashes, Young said.

Even so, the data may not be conclusive.

“We can’t say for sure, but we can assume that (the program) has helped,” he said.

Reach Marrow at (803) 771-8512 or dmarrow@thestate.com.