Doctors, businessmen to rally at State House

Business owners and physicians are planning a rally at noon today at the State House to promote legislation that would limit their liability to injury victims.

Former Gov. James B. Edwards is slated to participate, organizers said.

The state House of Representatives has passed bills that would cap punitive damages at $2 million, and generally cap malpractice damages for pain and suffering at $300,000. But doctors and business owners want lower caps, said pediatric cardiologist Osborne Shuler, president of the Columbia Medical Society.

Injury victims and their lawyers rallied against the bills in January, saying arbitrary limits on liability could make businesses and doctors reckless.

The rally will be held at the Koger Center if it rains.

• Snow, sleet possible across S.C. today

Snow and other frozen precipitation is possible across much of South Carolina early today as a colder-than-normal winter continues across the state.

Forecasters do not expect much more than a dusting or glazing in most areas out of the latest storm, but they warned the system was still developing late Monday afternoon.

The precipitation is expected to be light snow and sleet later today, but forecasters say accumulations should be less than an inch, preventing the downed trees and power lines that littered the Midlands after last month’s ice storm.

It is just another storm and another shot of cold air in what has been a colder-than-normal winter in South Carolina.

Average temperatures across the state have been below normal seven of the past ten weeks, according to the State Climatology Office.

• Unattended coat caused fire at office

A coat left too close to a heater started a fire that caused $50,000 worth of damage to an Eastover business on Monday, said Battalion 4 Fire Chief David Rusher.

The fire at DeVeaux Collision at 524 Main St. was reported about 12:30 p.m., and firefighters arrived on the scene three minutes later, he said. The blaze was under control a short time later.

“The fire was contained pretty much to the front office,” Rusher said.

That is where a female employee had left her coat on a chair near an electric heater, he said.

“She was upset,” the fire chief said.

No injuries were reported.

• Police search for two prison escapees

PICKENS — Authorities were searching Monday for two inmates who escaped from the Pickens County Prison.

The prisoners, whose names were not immediately released, missed a head count on Sunday evening, said Lt. Tom Williamson of the Pickens Sheriff’s Office.

Williamson said the escapees used the phone at a woman’s home near the prison and knocked on another resident’s door about 8:30 p.m. to ask for clothes. The resident called police.

Neither inmate was in jail for violent offenses, Williamson said.

From Staff and Wire Reports