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COLUMBIA -- Car and Driver Magazine has ranked South Carolina one of the nation's worst states for driving conditions.

In the magazine's January issue, it ranked the states based on factors ranging from road roughness to highway spending and fatalities. It said much of its data came from the Federal Highway Administration.

South Carolina ranked ahead of only Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana and the District of Columbia. The magazine ranked Alaska best.

"It once again highlights the need to make sure the money we are spending on transportation gets to where it's needed most, and that is the repair and upkeep of the roads," said Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford.

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Sawyer said last month's critical management audit of the state Department of Transportation shows the agency is not doing "as good a job as it could at fulfilling that mission."

The Car and Driver ranking gave South Carolina relatively poor marks for traffic fatalities, tickets per 100 million miles of vehicle traffic and highway spending per licensed driver.

Sawyer said the ranking also highlights the need for tougher DUI laws. Sanford is supporting legislation to toughen penalties, especially for repeat offenders.

South Carolina, according to the magazine, spends $341 per driver, about a third of Alaska's $1,078 per driver but above last-place Georgia, which spends $282 per driver.

DOT officials say they have a repair and construction backlog of about $3 billion. Officials say they cannot catch up because of flat gas tax revenues, rising construction prices and lower-than-anticipated federal revenues. The state's gas tax hasn't been increased since 1987.

Lawmakers have pledged to try and find more money for roads when they go back to work next January.

The magazine gave the state medium to higher rankings for the percentage of roads labeled rough, the amount of truck traffic, and the average of high and low highway speed limits.

South Carolina also scored low in a more random category, the difference between high and low points in the state. The magazine's columnist explained the category is meant to get at how interesting a state's roads are to drivers. The bigger the difference in elevation, the more interesting the topography, he theorized.

Alaska garnered the highest points in that category, with an elevation change of 20,000 feet, while more flat-land states earned few points.