2021 on track to be South Carolina’s deadliest year on roadways

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina passed 1,000 deaths due to car crashes this week, according to data from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. That’s the earliest the state has ever reached that number.

With 1,005 car crash fatalities as of Dec. 3, 2021 and an average of 88 deaths per month in 2020, this data from the SCDPS puts 2021 on track to be the deadliest on South Carolina’s roadways.

State highway officials say there are ways to avoid this.

“Just do the right thing, it’s not hard to do that, everybody knows what you’re supposed to do. And work together, work with us, help us help you,” Lance Corporal Nick Pye says.

“Doing the right thing” includes being aware, not speeding and not driving under the influence, according to Pye.

But doing the right thing is easier said than done, as speeding, drunk driving and distracted driving remain the biggest issues, according to highway officials. Those, in turn, raising the number of fatal car crashes.

In Charleston County, the increase is only by one, up to 65 from 64 in 2020.

“But go to that one family, that only one family, and tell them you’re loved one who perished in a collision, you know it’s just one,” Captain Jim Woods with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office says.

Woods also says the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the deadliest times of the year. With that average of 88 people killed per month in crashes in 2020, this year is on track to be the deadliest in South Carolina ever.