Hit by an uninsured driver in Goose Creek? Your own policy may be the answer

South Carolina requires every auto policy to carry liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, and $25,000 for property damage (Section 38-77-140). Some drivers carry only that minimum, and some carry nothing. When one of them hits you, the coverage that answers may be on your own policy.

Goose Creek is Berkeley County's largest municipality. SCDOT names US 52 through the city North and South Goose Creek Boulevard and US 176 St. James Avenue, and it counted about 66,900 vehicles a day in 2024 on US 52 between the Charleston County line and St. James Avenue. Across all of Berkeley County, US-52 had 653 collisions in 2024, 10 of them fatal, and US-176 had 569, according to the SCDPS Fact Book.

1. Uninsured motorist (UM). Required on every South Carolina policy, at limits of at least 25/50/25 (Section 38-77-150). It pays what you are legally entitled to recover from an uninsured driver, up to your UM limits. It also covers a hit-and-run by an unknown driver when the conditions in Section 38-77-170 are met.
2. Underinsured motorist (UIM). Optional. Insurers must offer it up to your liability limits (Section 38-77-160), and you are not required to buy it. It pays when your damages exceed the at-fault driver's liability limits. Under Section 38-77-350(E), if you did not return the signed offer form within 30 days, the insurer must add UM and UIM at the same limits as your liability coverage, so the offer form is worth checking.
3. Stacking. Stacking means combining UM or UIM coverage from more than one vehicle. Under the S.C. Supreme Court's decision in Concrete Services v. USF&G, only the named insured, a spouse or a relative living in the household may stack. Guests and permissive drivers may not. Section 38-77-160 also limits how much coverage can be combined. Whether stacking applies depends on the policies and the facts, so have a lawyer check before you assume it does or does not.

The full explanation, including the unknown-driver rules and how UIM claims are settled, is on uninsured motorist coverage in South Carolina.

• Settling with the at-fault driver's insurer before talking to a lawyer about your UIM claim. Section 38-77-160 bars any policy clause that requires your UIM carrier's consent to that settlement, but the statute sets its own rules. Your UIM carrier must be served with the suit papers and has 30 days to appear, and when the at-fault driver's insurer pays its liability limits, the UIM carrier may take over the defense. A lawyer can walk you through those rules before you sign anything.
• Waiting too long to report a hit-and-run. To use UM coverage against an unknown driver, Section 38-77-170 requires a report to the police within a reasonable time under the circumstances. The claim also needs physical contact with the other vehicle, a witness other than the owner or driver of your vehicle who signs an affidavit, or, since May 2024, a recording that shows the unknown vehicle caused the crash. Save any video of the crash.
• Understating the injury to your own insurer. Your policy likely requires you to report the crash and cooperate. Keep in mind that in a UM or UIM suit, your own carrier is served with the papers and may defend the case in the at-fault driver's name.

Inside the city, the Goose Creek Police Department works crashes. It investigated 1,284 collisions in 2024, according to the SCDPS Fact Book. The department keeps reports from the preceding 14 days at its office on North Goose Creek Boulevard. A report is free in person for parties the report lists as not at fault, and $5 for others. Across Berkeley County that year, the Highway Patrol investigated 3,468 of the county's 6,536 collisions.

The at-fault driver's traffic ticket may be heard in Goose Creek Municipal Court, but municipal courts have no civil jurisdiction, so an injury claim is not filed there. Berkeley County's Court of Common Pleas sits at the Berkeley County Courthouse, 300-B California Avenue in Moncks Corner, in the Ninth Judicial Circuit. For more on the city, see car accident claims in Goose Creek.