Staff reports | More people died this year on South Carolina’s highways than any in the last eight years, according to state highway traffic fatality data.
The likely culprit? Gas prices at less than $2 per gallon, which makes it easier for people to drive and makes highways more dangerous.
“It’s a combination of more people getting on the road and them not going out in the last four to five years when the economy was tight,” one state official explained.
According to AAA Carolinas, a record number of South Carolinians — nearly 1.4 million — are expected to travel 50 miles or more on state roads during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
As of Christmas Eve, 930 people died in South Carolina traffic fatal accidents on the state’s more than 66,000 roadway miles. That’s the most since 2007 when 1,077 people died on the state’s highways.
Roadway fatalities dropped below four figures in 2008 (921 deaths) and generally declined until 2013 (767 deaths). Last year, 797 people died on the state’s roads.
Some other traffic-related data from the 2013 S.C. Traffic Collision Fact Book:
- Traffic collisions: There’s one every 4.6 minutes in South Carolina.
- Traffic deaths: There’s a fatality about every 12 hours, including a fatal or injury collision involving teen drivers every 1.6 hours. A bicyclist is killed every 24.3 days, a motorcyclist every 2.9 days and a pedestrian every 7.2 days.
- Injuries: Almost 51,000 people are injured in traffic accidents every year in South Carolina.
- Economic loss: The state lost $2.77 billion due to traffic collisions in 2013.
- More information.
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