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The scenic, tree-lined roads to the exclusive resorts on Kiawah and Seabrook
islands are some of the most dangerous rural roads in the nation, according
to a report released Tuesday.
The study was done by TRIP, a transportation study group based in
Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the S.C. Alliance to Fix Our Roads, a
group urging more state money for rural roads.
With its tree-lined curves that limit visibility, River Road on Johns Island
was named one of the most dangerous local rural roadways. The results were
announced at the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. Business leaders are
concerned that unsafe rural roads are hurting tourism and commerce, as well
as costing lives, Chamber President Thom Penney said.
The study compared the number of serious accidents with the number of miles
traveled between 2002 and 2006 to come up with an accident rate. TRIP relied
on the state Department of Transportation for accident and traffic data.
South Carolina has the highest rural traffic fatality rate in the nation,
according to Carolyn Bonifas, TRIP's associate director of research and
communication. The accident rate on the state's rural roads is 52 percent
higher than the national average, she said.
A big reason the state's rural roads are so dangerous is that they carry so
many motorists with the increasing population, the study notes.
The two most treacherous stretches of rural roads in the Charleston area are
on Johns Island between Kiawah and Seabrook and Charleston, according to the
study. There were 28 fatalities on those two stretches during the study
period.
The results were no surprise to Seabrook resident John DuBois, who said he
would have joined the accident statistics recently if he had not been paying
attention.
DuBois, a Seabrook Island Town Council member, was driving from his house
toward Charleston one recent morning, going past the horse farms along
Bohicket Road. A pickup truck driver talking on a cell phone bounced off one
of the big oak trees that line the road, veered into DuBois' lane and kept
on trucking. DuBois had to drive off the road to avoid being hit.
"It is dangerous," he said of the road. "It really is dangerous."
But he's not sure what to do about it. He certainly doesn't want to move the
trees. He favors building an alternate route, but says many residents oppose
anything that might spur more development.
The chamber and the alliance hope the study encourages state lawmakers to
give the Department of Transportation more money to make rural roads safer.
"This is a killer," said Bobby Clair, a former DOT project manager who is on
the road alliance's executive committee. "We've got to do something about
it."
DOT has been working to improve rural roads under a program called CRISOS,
or Crash Reduction by Improving Safety on Secondaries, the report said.
Most of the roads the report identified were improved within the last couple
of years, including putting wider shoulders along Chisolm and Main roads,
according to Robert Clark, DOT's engineering administrator for the
Charleston district.
DOT will have to compare accidents before and after the improvements to see
what other changes might be justified, he said.
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