Troopers begins Thanksgiving holiday enforcement campaign Wednesday in S.C.

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - While you’re busy watching the Gamecocks and Tigers face off or stuffing your face full of turkey and dressing, troopers will be busy keeping our roads safe.

Master Trooper Brian Lee with the South Carolina Highway Patrol said Thanksgiving tends to be one of the state’s busiest holidays.

There were 19 traffic deaths statewide during the 2019 Thanksgiving weekend. Last year, the holiday weekend led to 14 traffic-related deaths.

With travel back to normal, troopers aren’t taking any chances with your safety.

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“We’re going to have everybody out working, we’ve got everybody signed up, even if they weren’t on the schedule they’re going to be there. We’ll have people on the roads and extra people on the roads,” Lee said.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol reported over 1,300 accidents last Thanksgiving. Most of them were caused by speeding in bad weather conditions, failure to yield right of way, and driving under the influence.

Lee said you’ll see troopers out on the interstates and highways as you travel to or through the Grand Strand and Pee Dee. You’ll also likely see traffic checkpoints as you drive to your destination.

”We’ll have a lot of safety checkpoints, license checks, we’re going to make sure if people are out traveling to a relative’s house if they’ve been drinking, that they have a designated driver,” Lee said.

No one wants to spend money on a ticket, or worse, spend the night in jail.

To avoid any potential problems, Lee has a few words of advice.

”Anticipate the traffic is going to be heavy, make sure you have time to get to your destination, make sure you have plenty of rest, share the driving responsibilities with other people in your car and make sure you get there and get home safely,” Lee said.

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