Before his 20-hour-long trek to Michigan, local lumber worker Tim Croll said he would get plenty of rest and take the drive nice and slow.

Croll, 23, said he was alarmed that a higher rate of traffic fatalities were speeding-related in South Carolina than in any other state in the past 20 years. The findings were reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Transportation Department.

"I've never been in an accident," said Croll, who knocked on wood in a downtown restaurant a day before he planned to make the drive. "I'm a cautious driver. I never go more than 5 or so miles over the speed limit."

According to the report issued this week, at least one person was speeding in nearly half of all fatal accidents in South Carolina from 1983 to 2002. There were 1,053 driving fatalities in South Carolina in 2002, with 495, or 47 percent, considered speeding-related, according to the report.

Dennis Griesemer, 29, of Ladson, said he has slowed down a lot since his days in high school.

"I've had my share of tickets," said the shift manager at a gas station on Meeting Street. "And I've had my experiences with speeding."

State public safety authorities said those who lived to learn their lesson are lucky.

"We lose, each year, more than 1,000 people in this state to traffic fatalities, traffic collisions," said Sid Gaulden, spokesman for the South Carolina Public Safety Department. "That alone should be an indication speed is involved."

Ellie Martin, spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says it's difficult for the agency to say why South Carolina ranks at the top.

"We don't really have that much knowledge why one state is worse than another or better than another," Martin said.

Driver inattention is the leading cause of accidents in South Carolina, with two-lane secondary roads the most dangerous in the state, partly because they don't have a shoulder area, Gaulden said.

It's not uncommon for drivers to run off the road and overcorrect, sending them into oncoming traffic or slamming into trees, mailboxes and ditches on the other side of the street, he said.

But two actions by the General Assembly this past session could help limit the number of fatal accidents on South Carolina roads, Gaulden said.A new law that takes effect in December will let police pull over adult drivers for not wearing seat belts.

Buckling up reduces the risk of death in a crash by 45 percent in passenger cars and 60 percent in pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and minivans, Gaulden said.

Some Lowcountry drivers have been buckling up all along.

"I have kids I got to look out for," said Robert Egnor, 25, of Summerville. He also said some Lowcountry drivers just don't seem to care or want to share the road.

"They just have no respect," Egnor said. As for the alarming number of deaths in the state because of speeding, "It's no surprise. You just watch how some people drive on I-26 in traffic," he said.

In addition to stiffer laws, the state budget for the coming year includes more than $7 million to hire, train and equip 100 new state troopers. The Highway Patrol will begin training 50 troopers in July, and another 50 in January, Gaulden said.

The Highway Patrol issued 239,686 speeding citations in 2004. That's up from 228,363 in 2003. Speeding-related fatalities, meanwhile, increased each year from 2000 to 2002.

"It's visibility if nothing else," Gaulden said of having more troopers on the road. "People will see them and know they're out there for a purpose, and that purpose is to save lives."

Croll, who decided to move back to Michigan after six months in the Lowcountry, said, "I only received one speeding ticket in my life and that was when I was 16. I was doing 85 mph in a 55 mph zone."

Croll learned an important life lesson after receiving a stiff fine: "I don't anticipate speed being a problem on my long drive home."