BEAUFORT -- Lowcountry car dealer O.C. Welch is using a billboard to call on Gov. Mark Sanford to expedite plans to improve a stretch of U.S. 17 from S.C. 170 to the Georgia state line in Jasper County.

Welch, who owns several dealerships, including ones in Beaufort, greater Bluffton and Georgia, and was involved in a fatal wreck on the road last month, said Monday he bought the billboard, which asks Sanford "How many must die before you make this road safe?"

There have been three deaths since January on the portion of U.S. 17 near the state line in Jasper County, including the July 14 accident in which Welch was driving with his son, O.C. "Chip" Welch IV, toward Savannah when they were struck by a Buick that crossed the centerline, according to the S.C. Highway Patrol.

The Buick, driven by Sam Brown, had come off the road to pass a vehicle turning left and overcorrected, driving off the lefthand side of the road in front of Welch.

The accident led to four injuries and the death of 68-year-old Lenora Brown, Sam Brown's wife. The road is expected to be widened in 2007 as part of a $2.8 million project administered by the state Department of Transportation and paid for with money secured by the Lowcountry Council of Governments. It is one of the last projects in a push that has included widening Sams Point Road on Lady's Island and the Parris Island Gateway, as well as a planned widening for Sea Island Parkway on St. Helena Island.

But Welch said the 6-mile stretch of highway to Savannah that he travels frequently is too dangerous to wait.

"It should have been done 10 years ago, 15 years ago," he said.

With control of the Transportation Department resting soundly with the legislature, Sanford spokesman Chris Drummond said Monday that there wasn't anything the governor could do to get the road widened.

"There's no accountability from the Department of Transportation to the Governor's Office," he said.

The governor has asked the state Department of Public Safety to look at enforcement levels on that stretch of highway, Drummond said. The department has an additional six officers expected to graduate from training this fall to begin enforcement on Jasper and Beaufort highways.

In July, Sanford announced a temporary increase in patrols and came out in support of the widening of U.S. 17 from Gardens Corner to Jacksonboro in Colleton County. That two-lane, 22-mile stretch of highway has been the site of 12 deaths since January 2004 and 33 since 1997.

"That's way overdue as well," Welch said.

Welch did not know the cost for the billboard, but he said money was not the issue.

"There's nowhere to get out of the way," he said of the highway. "It's a death trap."