Horry County leads SC in fatal crashes. Here’s what else new data shows
The drag along U.S. 501 through Conway in Horry County can experience traffic crashes and delays. New data from the South Carolina Highway Patrol shows that there are roughly 1,500 collisions a year on that roadway.
U.S. 501 runs through the City of Conway and is the main road to connect to other highways in South Carolina to other states.
The new data shows that 2021 and 2023 yielded the most fatal crashes on U.S. 501 in Horry County. It also shows that the total number of collisions along the road has ranged from 1,365 in 2020 to 1,471 in 2024, with 2021 having the most amount at 1,703.
The data includes US-501 Business due to the difficulty in separating it from US-501, said Freedom of Information Act Program Manager for SCHP Courtney Wiles.
For the past five years, there have been 40 people killed as a result of traffic crashes along U.S. 501 in Horry County and 8,420 total collisions, according to SCHP numbers.
Spokesperson for South Carolina Department of Transportation, Hannah Robinson, declined to comment when asked about the amount of crashes along U.S. 501 in Horry County.
“For a story on crashes, we would point you to Highway Patrol,” she wrote in an email to The Sun News.
Although SCHP provided numbers for 2025, they are significantly less than the numbers for 2020 through 2024 because there is still time left in the year.
So far this year, according to SCHP, there have been 724 total collisions along U.S. 501 in Horry County and three fatalities.
In unincorporated Horry County, SCHP conducts all traffic incident responses and investigations, and not the Horry County Police Department, said Mikayla Moskov, the director of public information for Horry County
It can take up to two hours to get off the busy highway depending on when and where are driving because of the congestion due to recent construction, previous Sun New reporting said. U.S. 501 in Horry County tracked around 56,800 drivers a year, according to SCDOT data.
Additional data from the SCHP shows that Horry County is also leading the state for traffic fatalities in 2025.
According to the data, Horry County has had 37 traffic fatalities recorded by SCHP so far this year. The next closest counties are Charleston County with 32 fatalities and Greenville County with 26 traffic fatalities in 2025.
Preliminary figures provided by SCHP show that the number of traffic fatalities in Horry County from January 1 to August 3 in 2025 is higher than in 2024.
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
