Georgetown County recorded more than 7,300 traffic collisions over a recent five-year period, according to data compiled by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. While that total is considerably smaller than what neighboring Horry County sees, the local numbers reveal their own patterns. Much of Georgetown County’s traffic moves through a handful of major routes, with US-17 serving as the primary coastal corridor connecting communities, businesses, and destinations throughout the area.
Looking at where crashes occur, who is most often involved, and when the most serious collisions happen provides a clearer picture of the traffic risks unique to Georgetown County.
How Often Crashes Happen in Georgetown County
SCDPS collision data covering federal fiscal years 2020 through 2024 shows 7,365 collisions in Georgetown County. While the overall number of crashes remained relatively consistent from year to year, the number resulting in death or serious injury varied more noticeably.
The 2022-2023 fiscal year stands out in particular, with a marked increase in fatal collisions before the number declined the following year. That fluctuation is important because total crash volume alone does not show how severe those collisions were. A year can have a similar number of crashes while producing very different outcomes for the people involved.
| Fiscal Year | Fatal Collisions | Serious Injury Collisions | Other Injury Collisions | Property Damage Only | Total Collisions |
| 2019-2020 | 11 | 30 | 351 | 900 | 1,292 |
| 2020-2021 | 11 | 41 | 355 | 1,082 | 1,489 |
| 2021-2022 | 14 | 31 | 414 | 1,112 | 1,571 |
| 2022-2023 | 23 | 38 | 378 | 1,084 | 1,523 |
| 2023-2024 | 17 | 36 | 390 | 1,047 | 1,490 |
| 5-Year Total | 76 | 176 | 1,888 | 5,225 | 7,365 |
Source: South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Georgetown County Traffic Collision Statistics
Major Roads That Shape Georgetown County Traffic
US-17 is the primary coastal route through much of Georgetown County, connecting Georgetown with Pawleys Island, Litchfield, and communities farther north. Along the way, highway traffic mixes with vehicles entering and leaving shopping centers, restaurants, residential communities, beaches, and major attractions such as Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park. During the busier tourism months, that can mean heavier traffic and more frequent slowing, turning, and merging along the corridor.
Other major routes create different traffic patterns. SC-707 carries local and regional traffic through the Murrells Inlet area, while US-701 and US-521 provide important connections between Georgetown County and communities farther inland. Downtown Georgetown presents another environment altogether, with vehicles sharing a more compact street network with pedestrians around Front Street, Highmarket Street, businesses, and waterfront destinations.
These differences matter when looking at countywide crash data. A collision on a busy stretch of US-17 may happen under very different conditions from one on an inland highway or a downtown street. Traffic volume, speed, intersections, pedestrian activity, and seasonal visitors all vary depending on where in the county someone is driving.
How Highway Design Can Affect Crash Risk
Certain stretches of US-17 through the Litchfield and Pawleys Island area combine higher-speed traffic with frequent entrances to residential communities, resorts, restaurants, and shopping areas. Unlike a fully controlled-access highway, drivers may need to slow for turning vehicles, enter traffic from side roads, or cross opposing lanes to reach a destination.
Road design can become especially important when traffic is moving quickly. Federal Highway Administration data has long shown that higher-speed rural roads tend to produce more severe outcomes when crashes occur. Along the Georgetown County portion of US-17, several conditions can create additional points where drivers have to react to changing traffic:
- Left-turning vehicles crossing oncoming traffic at residential, resort, and commercial entrances
- Seasonal visitors who may be unfamiliar with local turns and intersections
- Traffic slowing near busy driveways and entrances
- Vehicles entering US-17 from side roads and accelerating into faster-moving traffic
By The Numbers
Georgetown County recorded 7,365 traffic collisions from FFY 2020 through 2024, with fatal and serious-injury crashes occurring every year studied.
None of these conditions makes a collision inevitable, and drivers use this corridor safely every day. They do, however, create more situations where vehicles traveling at different speeds or in different directions have to interact. Leaving additional following distance, watching for turning traffic, and anticipating vehicles entering the highway can give drivers more time to respond when traffic changes unexpectedly.
How Local Traffic Conditions Can Matter After a Crash
The traffic patterns discussed above can help provide context for how crashes happen, but they do not determine who was at fault. On a busy stretch of US-17, for example, sudden slowdowns and frequent turning traffic can contribute to rear-end accidents when drivers follow too closely or fail to react as traffic changes. Distraction can also become a factor when drivers are navigating unfamiliar roads, looking for entrances, or dividing their attention between traffic and a phone or navigation system.
These issues can be particularly relevant in the northern part of the county, where coastal traffic continues toward Murrells Inlet. After a car accident in Murrells Inlet or elsewhere along the corridor, evidence such as photographs, witness accounts, available video, and the crash report can help show what each driver was doing before impact.
That evidence becomes especially important when the drivers disagree about what happened. South Carolina’s comparative negligence rules allow fault to be divided when more than one person contributed to a collision, so the conditions surrounding the crash can affect how responsibility is ultimately allocated.
Safer Driving on Georgetown County Roads
The point of looking at Georgetown County’s crash data is not to make drivers nervous about getting on US-17 or any of the area’s busier roads. Thousands of residents and visitors travel these routes safely every day, and being aware of the conditions that tend to cause problems can make that easier.
For locals, that may mean knowing where traffic tends to back up and giving the car ahead a little more room near busy entrances. Visitors can make things easier on themselves by setting navigation before pulling onto the road and avoiding last-second lane changes when they realize a turn is coming up. For everyone, slowing down when traffic gets heavy and keeping phones and other distractions out of the equation leaves more time to react when someone else does something unexpected.
No amount of defensive driving can control the decisions other people make behind the wheel. But paying attention, leaving yourself room to react, and expecting traffic to change quickly can lower the chances that someone’s mistake turns into a crash.