The South Carolina Highway Patrol started a driving under the influence team in January in response to the record number of road deaths in Horry County in 2007.
The patrol started a six member DUI team that patrols Horry County roads around the clock looking for drunk drivers and getting them off the roads, “They’re focused on violations that will possibly indicate someone who is driving under the influence,” Troop 5 Sergeant Don Causey told News13.
“They’re putting a lot of work into it. A DUI case is very hard to prosecute because it is so complicated,” Causey said.
In 2007, more than 80 people died on Horry County roads compared to 34 people who have died so far in 2008, according to the patrol.
In 2007, Troopers made 565 DUI cases in Horry County and so far in 2008, Troopers charged 1,003 drivers with DUI.
Causey said of the cases made, some 90 percent end in either guilty pleas or convictions.
The effort Causey said is to make Horry County’s roads safer, “Especially the people who live here understand that if you’re going to drink, don’t drive because the chances of being caught are pretty high and the worst scenario is that you get into a serious collision and injure or kill someone else, so it’s just not worth it.”
The team works in pairs of three in 12-hour shifts seven days a week.
“We don’t want to get out there and put anybody in jail. The purpose is to decrease the number of collisions and decrease the number of fatalities, so if we have zero arrests and there are no fatalities, then that’s fine,” Causey said.
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