South Carolina Department of Public Safety________
Media Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: SID GAULDEN (803) 896-8409 or Beverly Harris (803) 896-9958

April 22, 2009

SCDPS TO HOLD MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR TRAFFIC COLLISION FATALITIES

BLYTHEWOOD – The South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCDPS) will hold a memorial service to remember the 918 people who died as a result of traffic collisions on state roadways in 2008.

The annual Memorial Service for Highway Fatality Victims will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 25 at North Trenholm Baptist Church, 6515 North Trenholm Road in Columbia. Dr. Paul Ballard, pastor of the church, will deliver the “Message of Hope” to those in attendance.

More than 1,000 people are expected at the service based on responses received by SCDPS’ Office of Highway Safety, which is coordinating the event. Those in attendance will be mostly family members of the deceased and law enforcement officials.

Preliminary statistics for 2008 show the following highway fatalities by county:

Abbeville – 1

Aiken – 30

Allendale – 6

Anderson – 27

Bamberg – 2

Barnwell – 9

Beaufort – 20

Berkeley – 41

Calhoun – 1

Charleston – 59

Cherokee – 16

Chester – 14

Chesterfield – 17

Clarendon – 12

Colleton – 21

Darlington – 22

Dillon – 10

Dorchester – 25

Edgefield – 7

Fairfield – 11

Florence – 43

Georgetown – 14

Greenville – 70

Greenwood – 7

Hampton – 3

Horry – 48

Jasper – 14

Kershaw – 11

Lancaster – 18

Laurens – 15

Lee – 6

Lexington – 60

Marion – 13

Marlboro – 8

McCormick – 1

Newberry – 7

Oconee – 14

Orangeburg – 28

Pickens – 17

Richland – 43

Saluda – 7

Spartanburg – 46

Sumter – 28

Union – 6

Williamsburg – 9

York – 31

Total – 918

Statistics reflect the number of deaths that occurred as a result of traffic collisions within each county, not necessarily the residency of the traffic victims.

The memorial service has been held annually since 1988 to remember state residents and visitors who lost their lives on South Carolina highways, to bring together families and friends of the deceased and to educate the public in an effort to prevent future loss of life on the state’s roads.