Grants from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will allow departments in several municipalities and the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office to add officers specifically to monitor areas with the highest accidents rates.
Gov. Mark Sanford announced last week that he has put $77 million in his executive budget to bolster law enforcement, including the hiring of 100 Highway Patrol troopers. He said law enforcement suffered some of the largest budget cuts following the 2001 recession.
Numbers tell the story of the need to improve driver education and traffic safety locally and throughout the state. Beaufort County averaged 21 highway deaths over the last four years. According to Public Safety Department statistics, Beaufort County ranked 11th out of the state's 46 counties in the number of highway collisions in 2004, with 3,165.
A study of S.C. traffic deaths over a 19-year period between 1983 and 2002 by the NHTSA awarded the Palmetto State the honor of having the highest rate of speed-related deaths in the nation. AAA Carolinas said in June 2005 when the study was released that the state should bolster its traffic enforcement units. Speed, the NHTSA said, was directly related to 50 percent of the 19,211 S.C. traffic fatalities in the 19 years. That is 18 percent higher than the national rate of 32 percent.
Sheriff P.J. Tanner's -- and other law enforcement agency chiefs' -- goal is to reduce traffic-related fatalities by at least 20 percent. By helping to reduce fatalities, they also should have an impact on the number of accidents. Accidents have a huge impact on the financial and physical quality of life for thousands of people.
Enforcement and education may help reduce fatalities, but a good dose of common sense must take precedence. It shouldn't take the threat of an expensive ticket to lower a driver's speed and thus the chance of death on the highway. Congested highways create opportunities for wrong-headed thinking and driving. Driving slower, paying attention and defensive driving are three better-than-average ways to arrive at one's destination in one piece and alive.
