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Big-rig crashes jump 39 percent in S.C.

But the number of officers on patrol remains the same statewide
By RICK BRUNDRETT

Staff Writer

Commercial vehicle wrecks in South Carolina — like the Marion County crash Sunday that killed four — jumped by nearly 900, or 39 percent, from 2001 through 2004, state accident records show.
During the same period, the number of State Transport Police officers, who enforce truck safety laws, remained about the same.
The agency has 111 officers to cover 46 counties, an average of fewer than three officers per county. Seventy-nine actually patrol the highways or staff weigh stations, according to agency data.
No transport officers were patroling Sunday evening in Marion County when a toddler and three other people on a hayride were killed in a crash involving a tractor trailer, said transport police Col. Anna Amos, who heads the division. Eight transport officers are assigned to an eight-county region that includes Marion, she said.
The truck driver in Sunday’s crash, Jake Davis Jr., 51, of Florence, was charged with felony driving under the influence. He has three prior DUI convictions and was charged with felony DUI in a 1988 wreck, state records show.
Amos declined to discuss specifics of Sunday’s wreck, which is being investigated by the state Highway Patrol, a separate division of the Department of Public Safety. But she said her division could use more officers.
“It certainly would be good to have your manpower increased to be able to respond to the amount of traffic that’s out there.”
Transport officers, for example, can sideline a trucker for 24 hours if they find unopened alcohol containers in a truck cab, she said.
State Sens. John Land, D-Clarendon, and John Courson, R-Richland, members of the Senate Finance Committee, said this week they support increased funding for transport police.
“They are grossly undermanned and grossly underfunded,” said Land.
The transport police division has a $14 million annual budget, which is supported mainly with federal money and various fees, Amos said.
From 2001 through 2004 in South Carolina, the number of commercial vehicle collisions jumped to 3,147 from 2,264, a 39- percent increase, though last year’s total decreased slightly from 2003, according to State Transport Police data.
In 2004, there were 102 fatal wrecks involving commercial vehicles, about 3 percent of the total.
By comparison, the number of collisions involving all vehicles over the four-year period increased by about 10 percent to 110,029, of which 946, or about 1 percent, involved fatalities, Department of Public Safety records show.
Commercial vehicles include everything from pickup trucks that haul cargo to large passenger vans to 18-wheelers. The number of trucks licensed to haul cargo in South Carolina increased over the four-year period by about 6 percent to 862,879, according to state Department of Motor Vehicle records.
The number of tractor-trailer rigs involved in collisions during the period increased by about 17 percent to 3,036, Department of Public Safety records show.
Rick Todd, president of S.C. Trucking Association, said most wrecks involving rigs are the fault of car drivers who speed, follow too closely or break other traffic laws. Amos estimated car drivers are at fault in about 80 percent of crashes involving large trucks.
“We think we do a good job of policing ourselves, and so do our companies,” said Todd, whose organization has about 800 member companies.
Davis, the truck driver in Sunday’s fatal wreck, owned and operated his rig, authorities said.
Todd said the Marion County wreck was “unique” in that the accident occurred on an unlighted country road, and the truck driver was charged with drunken driving. He said studies show a very small percentage of truck drivers involved in wrecks are charged with drunken driving.
In South Carolina from 2001 through 2004, drunken driving was the primary cause in no more than 3 percent of all commercial vehicle collisions, records show.
Todd said his organization would support increased funding for the transport police. But he said lawmakers would get “the most bang for their buck” by helping other police agencies target car drivers who cause big rigs to crash.