Patrol needs funds, officers

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the state Highway Patrol to write

fewer tickets, investigate more wrecks.

It should be unsettling for each of South Carolina's licensed drivers to learn the state with the nation's deadliest roads has cheated its Highway Patrol over the past three budgets. The state Legislature, after failing to effectively prioritize spending in face of massive revenue shortfalls, has irresponsibly slashed the agency by 30 percent over three years.

The result, as Greenville News reporter Andy Paras detailed in a recent news story, is a Highway Patrol that has historically thin staffing and is forcing its most experienced troopers into early retirement to save money. Furthermore, the patrol is operating with an aging vehicle fleet, and over recent years morale has proven to be a problem, evident in a recent attempt to unionize. And there's been a corresponding explosion in vehicle traffic.

Though it will realize $4 million more in funding next fiscal year from a surcharge on traffic tickets and a $100 fine for first-time DUI offenders, the money won't come close to funding an adequate trooper force. The number of troopers on the road today is at least 200 less than desired, with the numbers steadily declining through retirements and only a few new hires.

Look no further than how the average trooper spends his day to understand the depth of the problem. Most spend their day not on patrol, but responding to vehicle accidents. Enforcement takes a back seat, meaning budget cuts have, in effect, twisted the priorities of the Highway Patrol. Ironically enough, an adequate number of state troopers would make wreck detail less demanding.

It is proven that regular, high-profile enforcement is the Patrol's best tool to alter driver behavior, which is by far the No. 1 cause of vehicle accidents. More troopers would cut down on reckless behavior and driver inattention. The evidence is everywhere; state motorists, who now take for granted scarcely patrolled roads, brazenly speed and break other traffic laws.

With good reason, watchdog groups nationwide worry that wrecks and fatalities will increase. Since the budget cutting began in 2001, wrecks have increased yearly. Curiously, fatalities have decreased, defying expectations. But fatalities in South Carolina, which ranked worst in the nation last year, are still inordinately and unacceptably high.

While other factors, such as the poor condition of our secondary roads and lax seat belt use, contribute to this state's high fatality rate, drivers behaving badly cause much of the carnage on state roadways.

This is why it is critical that the state makes the Highway Patrol a funding priority, as more intense patrols and regular enforcement will make us all safer.