SC Chief Says Trooper Response Time Could Slow

If you've ever been in an accident and had to wait for a state trooper to get there or, more likely, had to sit in a traffic jam caused by an accident, your wait times were probably worse this year than they were last and they'll likely be even worse next year, according to South Carolina Director of Public Safety Mark Keel.

When numbers are available after the end of this year, he expects them to show that trooper response times will be longer than the average 30 minutes they were last year.

"The longer it takes for that trooper to get there, the longer it takes for that tow truck to get there and start working on removing that accident from the accident scene, or collision scene, then traffic's going to be backed up that much further, and then we end up having secondary accidents," he says.

The reason is simple math. While the number of vehicles registered in South Carolina is up 38 percent over last year and the number of licensed drivers is up 28%, there are fewer state troopers on our roads.

In December 2008, the Highway Patrol had 978 troopers. Today, it has 815.

A formula, distributed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to law enforcement agencies nationwide, looks at the number of miles in a state, the number of drivers and vehicles to determine how many troopers a state should have. According to that formula, called the Personnel Allocation Model, the state should have about 1,100 troopers.

Keel is hoping state lawmakers will allow him to hire more troopers next year. He's hoping for at least a class of about 50 to start in January, which wouldn't even make up for the 60 troopers who've left since January to retire or go to other jobs. But he knows hiring enough troopers is highly unlikely, given the budget deficit of nearly $1 billion the state is facing next year.

And lawmakers may look at the state's fatality rate and feel comfortable with the number of troopers already on the road. Only two people were killed on SC roads over the Thanksgiving holiday, the lowest number since three died in 1963.

The state is on pace to have fewer than 800 fatalities for the year, the first time that's happened since 1982.

Keel says the success can be attributed to a couple of things. First, troopers are focusing on the three main causes of highway fatalities: drunken driving, speeding and not wearing seat belts. For example, in 2005, the Highway Patrol made about 7,500 DUI arrests. Last year, it made more than 14,000 and is on pace to make even more this year.

Second, people have been driving less because of the bad economy, Keel says, but the numbers are starting to go up again.

So does the Highway Patrol really need more troopers?

Keel says, "Is 750 fatalities acceptable? And I don't think it is and I think that, again, with more troopers on the road we can put a further decrease in that number."