S.C. highway deaths tick up as Senate continues gas-tax debate

High school senior Tripp Rabon was riding with friends near Walterboro on the way to go duck hunting in 2015 when their vehicle hit standing water on Charleston Highway and the driver lost control.

The vehicle ran off the road, flipped and struck a tree, killing Rabon.

“The road is what caused his death,” said his mother, Sandra Rabon, adding repeated drainage problems – caused by a nearby ditch – led to the water on the roadway.

Tripp Rabon’s death, two days before Christmas, was one of 979 S.C. road fatalities in 2015. Another 1,017 died last year and 284 have died thus far this year, according to the Department of Public Safety.

As S.C. road deaths continue to tick up, the GOP-majority state Senate continued debating Tuesday whether the state’s gas tax should be raised to send more money to the S.C. Department of Transportation to pay for road repairs and maintenance.

The Transportation Department has said it needs an added $943 million a year to make the state’s roads safer.

Transportation Department Secretary Christy Hall says the roads system has decades of deferred maintenance. “We must take action to change our status as having the highest fatality rate in the nation.”

Some Republican senators oppose sending more money to the Transportation Department, saying its oversight first must be changed. Meanwhile, other Senate Republicans want an offsetting income-tax cut paired with any gas-tax increase.

‘Totally preventable’

It was pitch-black – about 5 a.m. – when Tripp Rabon and his friends came upon the standing water with no warning, said Sandra Rabon.

There were nine reported wrecks, including the one that killed Rabon, on that same stretch of highway in 2015, according to Public Safety.

The Transportation Department had multiple opportunities to stop the roadway’s flooding and did not, Sandra Rabon and her husband, Glenn Rabon, say. The day of Tripp Rabon’s death, the agency removed a driveway that was causing the ditch to spill over the road, they add.

Transportation Secretary Hall said her agency cannot comment on the wreck because of a pending lawsuit. Another passenger in the vehicle has sued the roads agency.

“This is not an isolated incident,” the Rabons say. “There continue to be multiple known issues across the state creating accidents that are not being addressed by the SCDOT.”

Sandra Rabon said her son’s death, like many other deaths on S.C. highways, could have been avoided.

“It’s people’s children dying,” she said. “It’s totally preventable.”

A change.org petition, with more than 6,000 supporters, urges the state to require an online, prioritized road-repair report. It would require real-time reporting of repairs and statistics, including accidents, fatalities, 911 calls and public repair requests.

“There needs to be more accountability ... to help stop these preventable accidents,” Sandra Rabon said, adding the Transportation Department’s structure is “a very political system.”

Rabon is not the only one who thinks that.

State Sen. Tom Davis – a Beaufort Republican who has filibustered a gas-tax increase for two years, arguing the roads agency should be put in the governor’s Cabinet before it gets any added money – took the Senate’s podium Tuesday to charge the Transportation Department has a politically corrupt system of oversight.

‘Brighten anybody’s worst day’

But, some senators say, S.C. roads will continue to be unsafe until the Transportation Department has more money to pay for maintenance and repairs, no matter its structure.

“A core function of state government is to maintain safe and reliable roads,” said state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw. “Underfunding road maintenance and repairs results in crumbling and unsafe roads.”

As that debate continues, the Rabons remember their “fun-loving” son.

Tripp Rabon had created a timeline of his life for a school project just before he died, his mother said. He planned to live to 100 and die in his rocking chair on his front porch.

Instead, his life was cut short by 83 years.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Sandra Rabon said. “He could brighten anybody’s worst day.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 5:48 PM with the headline "S.C. highway deaths tick up as Senate continues gas-tax debate."