State's roads are lawless

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Paul Hyde • State's roads are lawless (06/19/03) • Spoleto sticks to its principles (06/05/03) • License plan could be deadly (05/21/03) • Democrats still face long odds (05/07/03) • Should state superintendent be appointed? (04/24/03) More details Write to Paul Hyde, editorial page associate editor, at phyde@greenvillenews.com.

Alcohol.

Speeding.

No seat belts.

Drunk drivers and speeding motorists kill people almost every day in South Carolina — more often than in most any other state. We have the highest rate of DUI deaths in the nation, and one of the highest rates of fatalities on the road overall in the country.

Sometimes it seems as if South Carolina drivers are just plain crazy — with a vicious mean streak to boot.

The other day in Anderson, a man returning from visiting his critically ill wife at a hospice facility was killed when his car was hit by an alleged drunk driver. The incident occurred at 6:20 a.m. It beggars the imagination: allegedly drunk at 6:20 in the morning.

A day earlier, a man who had stopped his horse trailer on U.S. 76 was hit and killed by a teenage motorist who was charged with DUI.

Just a month ago, The Greenville News carried a story about Ty Couch, a 6-year-old Greenville boy, known for his cheery smile, who was killed while riding with his father and older sister to the races. A Spartanburg motorist was charged with DUI. Ty's obituary read: "Going to church and talking about Jesus and NASCAR races were some of his favorite things. He was his Mother's baby."

It's incidents like these that make a person wonder anew how people can be so heartlessly stupid as to drink and drive.

In 2001, there were 592 alcohol-related traffic deaths in South Carolina, according to Gov. Sanford. In all, there were 1,060 traffic fatalities. Drunk driving fatalities have increased by 46 percent over the past three years, even as the national average remained flat. Alcohol-related fatalities here are twice the national average. Speed is often a factor in DUI accidents.

Politicians shake their heads at our state's high rate of deaths on the road, but they know what the primary solution is: We need a stronger law enforcement presence on South Carolina roads — especially on state highways where nearly 80 percent of all traffic deaths occur.

We need to deter speeding, reckless and drunk drivers.

State lawmakers should be hiring more state troopers. Instead, they've slashed the Highway Patrol's budget to levels that AAA Carolinas calls "unconscionable." Troopers also are operating with an aging vehicle fleet, and trooper pay is close to miserable.

The number of troopers on patrol may dip to 800 this year — 200 less than the number of troopers on the road 15 years ago. During the same time, the number of vehicles on South Carolina roads has increased by 1 million.

State lawmakers this year rightfully reduced the blood alcohol limit from 0.10 to 0.08. But there are too few troopers to adequately enforce the stricter DUI law. Troopers complain about running from wreck to wreck and having little time for catching speeders or drunks.

Several things can be done to reduce deaths on the road: We need a tougher seat-belt law. We need to get rid of minibottles in bars. We need more treatment programs for alcoholics. Long-term, we need a better highway system in South Carolina — a system with wider lanes and ample shoulder space.

But mainly we need far more troopers, enforcing the law, helping to maintain public safety.

That will take farsighted state leadership, a commodity right now in scant supply.

One of the catch phrases popular among politicians comes from Proverbs 29:18 — "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

There's very little vision in Columbia these days, and as a consequence, people are indeed perishing on South Carolina roads.