Motorists love to speed here

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There's a simple reason: inadequate traffic enforcement on our roads.

Motorists most often speed where there's a lack of law enforcement visibility. Anyone who has driven on Interstate 85 in the morning, to mention one example, can vouch for that. Many motorists drive above the speed limit during morning rush hours, but speeders slow down noticeably when they spot a state trooper sitting along the road. Motorists don't want to be stopped; they don't want to be fined — and see their insurance rates rise.

But the reason speeding is rampant is that the state has too few troopers on the road. So it comes as little surprise that almost half of the 1,053 driving fatalities in 2002 were speeding-related. The state leads the nation in the proportion of speeding-related deaths over the past 20 years. Other big causes of traffic fatalities in South Carolina include driver inattention and drunken driving.

Those troubles combine to give South Carolina the nation's third highest rate of fatalities on the road. That's a truly troubling statistic that should concern everyone in this state — and prompt lawmakers to act. It means that a family member is more likely to die on the road in South Carolina than in most any other state in the nation.

After years of neglect, state lawmakers this year finally put $7 million toward hiring, training and equipping 100 new state troopers. That's great news, but it's only a start; the total number of state troopers will still be below the figure of six years ago, even while thousands more cars were added to South Carolina's roads.

Other positive developments: State lawmakers approved a tougher seat-belt law, which should help reduce traffic fatalities and the severity of all auto accidents. That law will allow law enforcement officers to stop motorists who are not wearing a seat belt. In addition, in recent years lawmakers have sought to get rid of minibottles in bars and have strengthened state laws against drunken driving.

Over the long term, the state needs to do a better job of building roads, making them wider and providing more shoulders. State lawmakers also need to continue adding to the ranks of state troopers — as well as paying them competitive salaries to reduce high turnover.