The South Carolina Department of Public Safety says 2009 was the safest year on the state's roads in 14 years -- 881 people died while driving on South Carolina roads in the past year.
Highway Patrol credits its new 31 member DUI enforcement team which began cracking down on people driving while impaired around July 4, 2009.
“Their efforts have resulted in a very high spike in the number of DUI arrests made in South Carolina. So we can attribute that to the number of arrests for DUI having obviously caused the fatality rate to come down with it,” said S.C. Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Paul Brouthers.
Highway Patrol hopes people in Horry County in particular realize the risk, where traffic fatalities were highest of any county in the palmetto state (60 deaths).
“If you get behind the wheel after you've been drinking and you know you've had too much to operate that vehicle safely this is the most likeliest of times in our history that you will be arrested for driving under the influence and why would you put yourself at risk for nothing?” said Brouthers.
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