Traffic Lights Save Lives

The identifying feature of the terrible twos is that children have learned to talk enough that they want to say “no” to everything. You know that children are starting to grow out of that phase when they begin to notice rules and patterns in the world around them. Traffic lights are often an early example of this. Three-year-olds will proudly tell you that red means stop and green means go, and they take delight in watching the traffic lights turn red and green and seeing the cars stop and go accordingly. No one is more aware that seatbelts save lives than the parent of a preschooler who must buckle the safety harness on the child’s car seat multiple times per day, except the parent of a newly licensed teen driver, who can only trust that the teen has remembered to buckle his or her seatbelt. Seatbelts save more lives than any other vehicle safety features, but as for features of the road, traffic lights can also be effective at preventing collisions. The residents of Horry County are circulating a petition, calling for the county to install traffic lights at an intersection where several devastating accidents have occurred. If you got injured in an accident that would probably not have happened if there were a traffic light at the intersection where the accident occurred, contact a Columbia car accident lawyer.

Horry County Residents Sign Petition Requesting Traffic Light After Teen Driver Dies Attempting to Make Left Turn

On February 4, 2026, a 15-year-old girl was driving to school in Horry County, practicing driving with her learner’s permit. She drove to the end of the SC 22 exit ramp and was trying to turn left onto Highway 90. When she turned, another vehicle struck her, causing catastrophic injuries; she died of her injuries two weeks later.

Several of the exit ramps onto Highway 90 in Horry County are sufficiently accident prone that residents have started to call for traffic lights at the end of the exit ramp that would indicate when drivers coming off the exit ramp should turn and when they should yield to the cars driving straight on Highway 90.

Residents drafted a petition, and by the second week of March 2026, it had more than 3,000 signatures. Some of the people who signed the petition were officials in the local government. A traffic light at the end of the SC 22 exit ramp at the Highway 90 exit could prevent further injuries and deaths, but what about justice for the people who have already suffered injury or death because of the turns that are so hard to navigate? Accident survivors or the families of the victims of fatal accidents have the right to file personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits against the city or county responsible for maintaining the road where the accident happened.

Let Us Help You Today

The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you get justice after a car accident where the absence of a traffic light was a contributing factor.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Source:

myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article314847068.html