Carolina Personal Injury News

South Carolina Car Accident Response Will Be Slower In 2011

The South Carolina State Patrol has a message for lawmakers and SC residents: if something isn’t done about the shrinking numbers of state police officers on the road, they may see the number of car accidents and secondary car accidents go up. At the same time, they may see longer response times to accidents as well as more traffic whenever a serious car accident takes place.

What is the reason for the lack of South Carolina State Patrol officers? The department says that they are losing a large number to officers to retirement, while losing others to new jobs. The result, they say, is that fewer troopers will be on the state’s highways and interstates – and that the roads will be less safe.

While South Carolina’s rate of car accident fatalities and serious accidents has gone down in recent years, the state police want to make certain that they keep heading in that direction by patrolling the roads for DUIs, speeders, and reckless drivers. Currently the state is on track to have less than 800 fatalities from traffic accidents in 2010, the lowest number in three decades. However, authorities don’t want to see those number go up – and they still believe that having over 700 people die each year in accident is still far too many.

The State Patrol is asking lawmakers to train 50 new officers this year to replace the 60 that they are losing. Since 2008, the force has lost over 150 officers. However, the state budget is as tight as it has ever been and lawmakers are unsure of what the best use of the money would ultimately be.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law. We maintain office in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC), on East Elizabeth Street, and we have handled thousands of cases in which victims got hurt or killed in car, truck, train and motorcycle crashes caused by others' negligence or carelessness.

We serve every area of North Carolina, including Elizabeth City, Edenton, Raleigh, Durham, Rocky Mount, Roanoke Rapids, Greensboro, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Halifax, Northampton,  Greenville, Goldsboro, Havelock, Kinston, New Bern, Tarboro, Wilson, Ahoskie, Currituck, Camden and the Outer Banks towns of Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Manteo, Corolla, Currituck and Dare. In South Carolina, we cover the state from Myrtle Beach and Charleston to Orangeburg, Columbia, Florence, Rock Hill, Darlington, Aiken, Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg.

Firm attorneys Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008 and the National Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2009. In addition, our firm has been named a North Carolina "Best Law Firm" for personal injury law since 2010 by U.S. News & World Report.

We also offer free special reports on distracted driving and the Best Guide to Car Accident Injuries in North Carolina. 

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