Not a trooper to be found

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six state police agencies, especially

its understaffed Highway Patrol.

Any citizen unfortunate enough to be involved in a vehicle accident may encounter another wreck: an increasingly overworked state Highway Patrol that is slow to respond to calls and virtually invisible on our roadways.

South Carolina, a state among the worst in highway fatalities and No. 1 in drunken-driving deaths, is down 158 troopers, according to a report in The State newspaper. Budget cuts have reduced the state Highway Patrol's ranks to 812 troopers compared to 970 five years ago. Ideally, the state should have more than 1,000 troopers, or 200 more than are on staff. That would bring the number of troopers in line with traffic growth.

But the really bad news is this: higher pay and regular raises at other police agencies in and around South Carolina mean the agency's best young troopers are not sticking around. The Highway Patrol is losing about 50 troopers a year. And the state won't be replacing them anytime soon. It costs $4 million to train, equip and buy vehicles for 50 new troopers. Meanwhile, the state Legislature has effectively frozen its commitment to state law enforcement agencies. Over the past three budgets, the state's commitment to the Highway Patrol has fallen by about one-third. This cannot continue.

South Carolina's roads will remain among the most deadly in the nation so long as there is an inadequate number of state troopers on patrol.

High law enforcement visibility is among the most basic and effective methods to temper driver behavior. What we have today — which is virtually no visibility — is what makes drivers so dangerously aggressive.

Blame can be traced to a state Legislature that hasn't done enough to spare the Highway Patrol over four tough budget cycles. This is the cost of the Legislature's refusal to prioritize its spending around essential services. Lawmakers have reacted to its budget difficulties with across-the-board cuts, meaning essential services with no tolerance for budget reductions have suffered disproportionately.

Lawmakers have attempted to devote more funds to the Highway Patrol. A surcharge to traffic tickets, promised to raise $4 million, has helped. And the budget passed this legislative session includes pay raises for all state employees. But that is not enough to offset the cuts and push the state toward its ideal of 1,000 troopers.

A state with one of the worst rates of traffic deaths in the nation needs more troopers on patrol to influence the one element that is common in all road deaths: driver behavior. But in South Carolina overworked state troopers spend most of their time responding to wrecks instead of writing tickets.

This state is going to have to rebuild its Highway Patrol, which means devoting more money to it. Otherwise, the Patrol will continue to see other agencies poach its best officers. And the agency will keep losing its veteran officers while the next generation of troopers — decimated by defections — will remain ill-equipped to step into the void. We deserve better protection.