STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 22.49 | Dec. 8, 2023
BIG STORY: Yet again, S.C. has some of the country’s worst drivers
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Campaign boost
COMMENTARY, Brack: This is exactly who he is
SPOTLIGHT: SC Clips
MYSTERY PHOTO: Brick and vines
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
S.C. still has some of the country’s worst drivers
By Lily Levin | The Palmetto State has previously been home to some of the country’s worst drivers — and a new 2023 report said this year was no exception.
South Carolina ranked eighth among states with the most incidents per driver, according to a
LendingTree study of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The assessment looked at wrecks, DUI charges, speeding citations and other traffic violations using a year’s worth of data from insurance quotes ending in October.
“It’s genuinely an intense experience every time you leave your house” to drive somewhere, said South Carolina native Avery Detitta, who is currently studying at the College of Charleston.
According to the data, the Palmetto State had a little more than 29 incidents such as wrecks and violations per 1,000 drivers. But it wasn’t as bad as Rhode Island, topping the list with more than 51 incidents per 1,000. Maine took the second spot with just over 50 and California came in third at about 40 per 1,000 drivers. The safest place to drive was Michigan, which boasted a slim rate of 11.28 incidents per 1,000 drivers, the study reported.
Lowcountry residents told the Charleston City Paper they weren’t surprised by South Carolina’s showing .
Detitta said classmates often ask to borrow her car, but both she and a friend have agreed to always decline requests from their out-of-state peers. That’s because of the level of traffic, Detitta explained, and the problematic “way the roads are set up” are things unique to South Carolina. She added that these issues span the entire state.
“It’s the same in Charleston and Columbia. There are just a lot of intersections that were very poorly made.”
When it came to the rate of car crashes, South Carolina ranked even higher. The state, with nearly 20 accidents per 1,000, came in sixth place — just behind the neighboring North Carolina. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and California took first, second and third, respectively; Michigan again came in last.
Not a shock
But the state’s large number of wrecks wasn’t much of a shock to residents, either. Devynn Sweat told the City Paper that she witnesses traffic accidents constantly in downtown Charleston, where she’s been living her entire life. People “are losing their lives daily,” she added.
Fellow downtown resident Tammy Malloy concurred. “Charleston’s full of dangerous driving, and I’ve traveled all over the country.” In Atlanta, where Malloy lived for eight years, she said she “never had a problem.” Charleston, however, “was an adjustment.”
Though Malloy doesn’t drive anymore, she remarked that the conditions have only been getting worse — and they’re especially lacking for pedestrians. “You really have to watch [as a pedestrian]. [Drivers] don’t pay attention to pedestrians. I see it all the time.”
When asked why South Carolina seems full of bad drivers, Sweat spoke of a false sense of urgency that people tend to have when they’re trying to get somewhere. Detitta said the roads were to blame. But both agreed with Malloy, who said, “Drivers need to do better.”
- Lily Levin is a reporter with the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Campaign boost
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail generally has a biting or funny comment about the great state of South Carolina in his weekly cartoon. This week, he highlights the recent boost that former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley received in her presidential campaign from the influential Koch family.
Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
This is exactly who he is
By Andy Brack | If there’s one thing I’ve learned through the years, it’s that people often will expose their souls and tell you exactly who they are. When they do, you need to take them at their word. They are exactly who they say they are.
So when Donald Trump says he’ll be a dictator for a day if he is elected to a second term as president, he’s not pussyfooting around. He’s telling America – the land of democracy, not autocracy – that he will be a dictator. That Hitlerian world view is real, not something that he will be able to turn off like a water spigot.
And as Washington Post Editor at Large Robert Kagan suggests, what happens if he doesn’t get everything done on Day One of being a dictator? Would there be a Day 2, 3, 4? Or maybe that would turn into freedom’s greatest nightmare – a dictator in the White House for four years who won’t follow the Constitution.
“The problem has never been knowing what to do,” Kagan wrote Dec. 7. “In the past, stopping Trump has required people taking risks and making sacrifices that they did not want to make, whether out of selfishness, fear or ambition.
“Today, the challenges are even greater but there is little evidence that the people we need to rise to the occasion are any more likely to do so than they have been for the past eight years.”
To thwart Trump, who has the backing of more than 50% of GOP voters in South Carolina according to a recent Winthrop Poll, the Republican Party needs to coalesce behind a single alternative candidate, Kagan says. And that needs to be former Gov. Nikki Haley, he said, “because she is clearly the most capable politician among the remaining candidates and the performer with the best chance, however slim, of challenging Trump. All the money and the endorsements should shift to her as quickly as possible.”
And the next big thing that must happen, he said, is that leaders from U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney to President Joe Biden must communicate over and over how Trump is unelectable because he is fundamentally unacceptable.
“Trump’s dictatorial tendencies and open disdain for the Constitution can become his greatest vulnerabilities – they might be his only vulnerabilities – if sufficiently highlighted for the American voter.”
But Haley and her foes aren’t exploiting Trump’s vulnerabilities. Rather, they seem to continually affirm his acceptability as president, Kagan writes. And the big problem is that unchallenged, he will get worse, issuing more threats and persecutions.
Trump’s increasingly authoritarian messaging, such as calling Democrats “vermin” – the same label Hitler gave to communists – has one seasoned South Carolina political observer seriously worried.
“These are truly dangerous times,” this politico shares. “Citizens must cast aside their political allegiances and not only take not, but say no to this rhetoric, to this movement and those promoting it. For those who suggest it can’t happen here, you are wrong. It can happen here, and it already is.”
Republicans not smitten by Trump, independents and Democrats need to coalesce now to do everything they can to make Trump and his red hats as unacceptable as Hitler and his brown shirts. Furthermore, the millions of registered American voters who didn’t bother to go to the polls in 2016 or 2020 have to wake up and participate to impede this smooth-talking Orange Menace from power. To fail to do so will risk everything that America stands for.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
SC Clips
Statehouse Report is brought to you weekly at no cost thanks to our underwriters. In the spotlight today is SC Clips, an affordable, daily information digest that provides you with the South Carolina news you need every business day. Subscribers receive a daily email news round-up before 10 a.m. that provides a link to each day’s edition of SC Clips.
Each issue (click for sample) provides a concise summary of dozens of the latest newspaper and television reports of news with statewide impact, politics, business and local stories. Readers also are linked to key opinions by South Carolina’s editorial writers.
- Learn more about this great news service that will save you time — which saves you money.
- Get a trial run at no cost.
Brick and vines
Here’s a neat looking picture of an old brick building topped by vines and sheltered by a grand oak. What is it and where is it? Send us your guess of what this photo shows – as well as your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s mystery photo, “Seven Gables,” was the old Chesterfield Inn in Myrtle Beach. It was put on the National Register of It was demolished in 2012 to make way for a putt-putt course.
Jay Altman of Columbia had an interesting observation about the site: “Karma intervened when the mini-golf course closed in 2017.”
Others correctly identifying the inn were: Steve Willis of Lancaster; Jacie Godfrey and Barry Wingard, both of Florence; Elizabeth Jones of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Penny Forrester of Tallahassee, Fla.; Will Williams of Aiken; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Pat Keadle of Wagener; Don Clark of Hartsville; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; and Archie Franchini of Charleston.
- Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Send us your thoughts
We encourage you to send in your thoughts about policy and politics impacting South Carolina. We’ve gotten some letters in the last few weeks – some positive, others nasty. We print non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your thoughts.
- Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
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