Traffic safety grant will add two Lancaster deputies to the road

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office soon will have two new deputies patrolling the streets, thanks to a $220,000 grant from the S.C. Department of Public Safety.

The agency has been awarded a grant to start a traffic enforcement unit that will focus on speeding, impaired driving and vehicle occupant protection, according to sheriff’s spokesman Doug Barfield. The $219,799 grant is funded 100 percent by federal dollars through the Office of Highway Safety and Justice Programs.

The grant will pay for two deputies, two fully equipped patrol cars, radios and cellphones with service contracts for the deputies, who will devote all their duty to traffic enforcement. The traffic enforcement unit will be geared toward reducing traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities.

“It creates two slots. We’ll have two more hires,” Barfield said. “They will be assigned to patrol at times and in areas where statistics show the highest frequency of violations and collisions occur. They will patrol nights, weekends and holidays and will perform saturation patrols and monthly safety checkpoints.”

Sheriff Barry Faile said the numbers show the need for additional patrols in Lancaster County, noting the area ranks 16th in the state for DUI crashes resulting in death or serious injury and 19th in the state overall for crashes resulting in death or serious injury.

There were 15 people killed on Lancaster County roadways in 2015, according to the S.C. Highway Patrol. Two people have died this year, as of Friday afternoon.

Before that, the total number of people killed on Lancaster County roadways decreased dramatically, from 24 in 2011 to nine in 2012 and five in 2013, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That number more than tripled to 16 fatalities recorded in 2014.

“Far too many people are injured or killed on our roadways,” Faile said. “Strict traffic law enforcement can reduce these numbers. We are fortunate to have been awarded this grant, which requires no funding by the sheriff’s office.”

The grant brings to four the number of Lancaster County deputies assigned to traffic enforcement. That’s because the grant is an expansion of a previous three-year grant that ended in September but was limited to DUI enforcement, Barfield said. The positions and equipment funded by that grant have been absorbed into the sheriff’s office budget.

The grant period was originally from Oct. 1, 2015, through Sept. 30, 2016, but federal funding limitations delayed implementation, Barfield said. They expect to have the two new deputies on the road in the next two weeks.

In addition to traffic enforcement, the deputies will make safety presentations to schools, businesses, churches and civic groups and take part in state and national highway safety initiatives such as Sober or Slammer and National Child Passenger Safety Week.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 7:18 PM with the headline "Traffic safety grant will add two Lancaster deputies to the road."