A new report provided by Quotewizard shows that traffic fatalities are up 11% in South Carolina, and many of those crashes involve alcohol.
Yet, DUI citations are down 55% in South Carolina since 2010.
Key Findings for South Carolina:
- 21% of crashes involved someone severely impaired
- 22 DUI arrests were made per 10k registered drivers
- Fatal crashes are up 18% nationwide since 2020
Horry County drivers are largely retirees. Seniors aged 55 and older make up 37 percent of our population, in comparison to 28.9 percent state-wide and 27 percent nationally.
However, the low wage paying tourism industry is a leading economic engine in the area.
SECOND TO LAST WAGE EARNERS
Horry County is ranked second to last in the nation when it comes to how much the people who live here are earning, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report.
The study looked at the first quarter wages and employment rates in the nation’s 355 largest counties.
2019 data shows the average weekly wage in Horry County is around $652 before taxes.
A CORRELATION BETWEEN POVERTY AND ALCOHOL
NIG.gov, the National Library of Medicine, reports that several studies have reported that alcohol abuse and dependence, as well as other risk behaviors, cluster in contexts of poverty, residential instability, and social isolation.