South Carolina Car Accident Laws

No single rule decides most crash claims, but right-of-way, speed and following distance rules come up in many of them. Frost Law Group handles car crash claims that turn on those duties.

The 2024 SCDPS Traffic Collision Fact Book counts the factors officers listed on crash reports, not what decided any claim. On Dorchester County reports that year, officers most often listed failure to yield (986) and driving too fast for conditions (823). Improper lane use (415) and following too closely (408) came next.

Under South Carolina car accident laws, a broken traffic rule does not settle fault on its own. The state Supreme Court's 2012 Fairchild opinion repeats a long-standing rule. Violating an applicable statute is generally negligence per se, meaning the violation itself counts as carelessness. Whether it caused the crash is usually a jury question, so the answer depends on the proof.

A driver must stop, share identifying details and help anyone hurt. When a crash injures or kills someone, the driver must also notify police at once. Section 56-5-1230 spells out the details as a name, an address and the vehicle's registration number. The driver shows a license on request and gives reasonable help, such as arranging a ride to a hospital when someone plainly needs care or asks for it.

Penalties for leaving climb with the harm. Driving off after a crash that hurts someone is a misdemeanor, and Section 56-5-1210 allows up to a year behind bars, a fine as high as $5,000, or both. If the person left behind suffers great bodily injury or dies, the charge is a felony instead.

Jack C. Frost put in fourteen years as an officer, corporal, deputy and detective. He served with the Summerville Police Department and then the Charleston County Sheriff's Office. That history lets him see which questions a collision report left open for Frost Law Group to chase down.

Every driver needs liability coverage of at least 25/50/25 plus uninsured motorist coverage at the same limits. Section 38-77-140 sets those figures. The first two numbers are the bodily injury floor, $25,000 a person and $50,000 a crash. The last is the property damage floor, also $25,000. Section 38-77-150 then adds uninsured motorist coverage to each policy as a required piece, with at least $25,000 for your own property, less an optional $200 exclusion.

The Department of Insurance calls South Carolina's approach a tort system, under which the driver at fault answers for the harm. Section 38-77-144 mandates no personal injury protection, and med pay is something you may add or skip. Section 56-10-10 makes the owner of each vehicle that must be registered keep the required coverage in place. Frost Law Group handles at-fault claims against the other driver's liability insurer and claims under your own policy when that insurer falls short.

Underinsured motorist coverage works differently. Your insurer has to offer it up to your liability limits under Section 38-77-160. Nothing forces you to buy it. Picture a driver with a 25/50/25 policy who runs a red light on Central Avenue and breaks your leg. Once that $25,000 per-person limit runs out, underinsured coverage on your own policy may pay more, subject to its terms and the proof.

Nobody may use a missing seat belt against you in a South Carolina injury case. The other driver's phone use is different, and it may count against that driver. Both rules sit in the same traffic chapter, yet they cut in opposite directions. An adjuster may still bring up an unbuckled belt, so the exact statutory words matter.

Frost Law Group can read both statutes against the crash report and the medical records. An officer may note belt use on the report. Witnesses or video may show a driver looking down at a screen. The belt question usually ends with the statute, while the phone question turns on proof.

Most injury suits must start within three years, and a person held more than 50% at fault recovers nothing. The three-year limit in Section 15-3-530 covers injury claims, vehicle damage claims and wrongful death claims. A wrongful death claim runs from the date the person died. Before any date passes, Frost Law Group can check South Carolina's car accident filing deadlines against your timeline.

South Carolina uses modified comparative negligence. A jury trims your award by your own share of the blame, and a share over 50% bars any award. A defendant under 50% at fault has owed only its own share since 2005, under Section 15-38-15. Act No. 42 of 2025 lets the jury also weigh the fault of people never named in the suit, for claims arising after January 1, 2026. How fault divides in a given crash depends on the evidence, so nobody can honestly predict a percentage.