Letter: Solutions available for road safety

This is called the Lowcountry for good reason. Many areas are only a few feet above sea level, and during a king tide nearly half of our county is under water. Nearly all of our roads are subject to serious flooding given the right climatic circumstances.

Therefore, our roads are constructed like causeways. In many instances, you can be traveling on a road that is elevated 6 to 10 feet above the surrounding landscape, which is not a good thing for safety. If you are traveling at a speed of 45 to 55 mph and need to take evasive action to avoid a collision, you will find yourself instantly airborne and heading for a tree line. This same scenario can play itself out if a driver falls asleep, is driving drunk, faints, has a heart attack or is texting or otherwise distracted from driving.

There is only one very doable solution and that is to construct guard rails on all of our elevated roads and thus significantly reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths that are now occurring on our highways.

Yes, and cutting back the tree lines would also be a good thing but unfortunately it may take more fatalities before state dollars are released to save lives.

In closing, we shouldn’t take comfort in any statement coming out of Columbia saying, “We are studying this issue.” It does not take a rocket scientist to determine what needs to be done.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Letter: Solutions available for road safety."