South Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers

A recent report by TRIP, a Washington D.C. road research group shows that South Carolina had the highest rate of traffic fatalities on rural roads across the nation, ranking significantly higher than heavily rural states like Texas or Florida.

The non-profit company discovered that there were 4.7 deaths per 100 million miles of travel in 2009 in our state. During 2009, 791 people died on SC’s rural roads.

The report said the roads were dangerous for its: “Inadequate roadway safety design, longer emergency vehicle response times and the higher speeds traveled on rural roads compared to urban roads are factors in the higher traffic fatality rate found on rural, non-Interstate routes.”

Most rural crashes in our nation involve a car going off-road. Head-on collisions occurred 87% more often on rural than urban roads in the United States in 2009. These statistics hold particular importance to our state where,we have 64,920 miles of roadways, and approximately 84% of them are rural.

The report also stated that 14% of South Carolina bridges were deficient.

Shortly after the report’s release, South Carolina’s Department of Transportation issued a press release of future and ongoing road projects.

The SCDOT said: “[W]e have experienced a down trend in overall fatalities over the past four years. The Department will continue to move forward with proven safety initiatives to address the issue of traffic fatalities.”

By: South Carolina Accident Lawyer Pete Strom