DUI deaths remain high

COLUMBIA -- South Carolinia drivers do one thing better than their neighbors in North Carolina and Georgia: drink.

State troopers attribute a high consumption rate to the fact that South Carolina is ranked second highest in the country for alcohol-related fatalities on the roadways, a problem Department of Public Safety director Mark Keel said law enforcement will attack head on this holiday season.

"If we catch them, they should feel like they're lucky," Highway Patrol Colonel Kenny Lancaster said.

Lancaster, who oversees the state's 827 troopers, said a drunken driving charge is expensive, but not as costly as it is for intoxicated motorists who hurt or kill another person. The repercussions stay with individuals for years whether they are sentenced to jail or denied a job because of their record, he said.

The key to saving more lives includes a strong drunken driving law, stepped-up enforcement and an education element that also involves alerting the public to upcoming crackdowns with highway message boards and radio and television advertisements.

Keel said his team has a plan in place that includes working with about 200 law enforcement agencies across the state to stop more drunken drivers with coordinated enforcement efforts, including holiday checkpoints.

Troopers stop drivers who have been drinking in the early morning as they take their kids to school, on their lunch break and later in the afternoon after holiday drop-in parties, Lancaster said. Not all are fall-down drunk. Many are charged because they are impaired from a few drinks.

The Public Safety Department has a new 31-man team devoted to catching drunken drivers. The team alone is responsible for 1,000 arrests since July. Additionally, the agency uses federal funds to award prizes, including new cars, and grants to local police departments and sheriff's offices for increased enforcement.

Law enforcement also puts the greatest efforts into the 17 counties that have the highest rate of alcohol-related fatalities and collisions in the state, including Berkeley and Charleston counties.

Together, police, troopers and deputies have made more than 22,000 drunken driving arrests so far this year compared to about 14,000 such arrests statewide in 2005.

But the state has a long way to go to catch up with others in the Southeast.

South Carolina has only decreased the number of alcohol-related fatalities by 3 percent since 1982 while surrounding states have dropped their DUI death rate by as many as 20 percentage points, Keel said.

Alcohol played a part in 47 percent of highway deaths in 1982 and was involved in 44 percent of deaths in 2008, which ranks the state second highest in the United States. North Dakota ranks first.

Solving the puzzle completely will include changing the culture.

Residents in South Carolina consume more malt alcohol per person than the residents in 37 other states, Keel said.

North Carolina is 35th in malt beverage consumption per person. Georgia is 43rd in consumption.

The leading causes of deaths on South Carolina highways are drunken driving, speeding and not wearing a seat belt, Keel said.

The troopers, in coordination with the local enforcement agencies, are focused on those violations, but they have to do more with less.

When Keel took the top job at the Public Safety Department in July 2008, the agency employed 983 troopers. Due to budget cuts, 827 troopers were left on the payroll in mid-December. The next patrol class will graduate in May and add as many as 50 to the ranks.

"We feel like we're making a dent in the problem," Keel said. "We feel like we're doing the things to turn this epidemic around. We've got to continue to work on it."

Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-926-7855 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.