When It Comes To DUI Collisions In South Carolina, Columbia Ranks Somewhere In The Middle

Even though South Carolina is one of the less populous states in the U.S., it often ranks in the top ten states with the highest rate of drunk driving accidents.  Even though traffic fatalities have declined in recent decades as cars have gotten safer and local and state governments have enforced laws against some of the most dangerous driving behaviors, alcohol plays a role in a large percentage of accidents that involve serious injury or death.  The South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services recently published a report on which counties in South Carolina have the highest rate of traffic accidents where DUI is a contributing factor.  Richland County was somewhere in the middle of South Carolina’s 46 counties, neither in the top ten nor the bottom ten.  If you have been injured in a DUI accident, contact a South Columbia car accident lawyer.

Myrtle Beach Is Not the Site of the Greatest Number of DUI Crashes

The South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services ranked counties by the number of DUI collisions per 100,000 accidents, not by raw numbers of accidents.  Otherwise, the counties that ranked the highest would be the ones with the biggest populations or the ones that receive the greatest numbers of visitors.  In fact, Horry County, the site of Myrtle Beach, which is South Carolina’s biggest tourist destination, did not rank in the top ten, even though every year, many thousands of tourists visit the Myrtle Beach area to get drunk, ride motorcycles, or both.

The ten counties with the highest rates of DUI accidents, 138.39 alcohol-related collisions or more per 100,000 residents, were Darlington, Chesterfield, Lexington, Lexington, Jasper, Marion, Marlboro, Newberry, Lancaster, and Aiken.  The ten counties with the lowest rates of DUI accidents, 92.81 DUI crashes or fewer per 100,000 residents, were Spartanburg, Orangeburg, Dillon, Colleton, Sumter, Union, Edgefield, Greenville, Calhoun, and Georgetown.  Many DUI crashes take place in rural areas, since there are fewer traffic lights, fewer traffic cops, fewer transportation options other than one’s own car, and longer distances between the bar and home, compared to urban areas.  To contrast the county with the highest rate of DUI collisions with the one with the lowest rate, approximately one in every 500 people in Darlington County has been involved in an alcohol-related accident, compared to one out of every 2,000 people in Spartanburg County.  This does not mean that one out of every 500 people in Darlington County drove drunk in 2020; many people involved in DUI crashes were drivers and passengers of vehicles struck by drunk drivers.

Let Us Help You Today

Statistics don’t tell the whole story; one DUI accident is too many if you were injured.  The car accident lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you recover damages if you were injured in a car accident involving drunk driving.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Sources:

stacker.com/south-carolina/most-rural-counties-south-carolina

wbtw.com/news/pee-dee/darlington-county/what-south-carolina-counties-have-the-highest-rate-of-dui-crashes/