Former state trooper David Marthers oversees one of the Spartanburg County SIDNE programs.
Now that high school is back in full session, one piece of local education that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet – but which is just as important as any academic subject – is the Highway Safety Grant Program.
Launched in 1993 by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, the intent is to show as many area high-school students as possible the dangers of impaired driving, aggressive driving, and distracted driving – and exactly what can happen when they look away from the road for even two seconds.
“This program for all Spartanburg District high schools,” said Spartanburg County coroner Rusty Clevenger, a longtime supporter of student driver safety. “Every year, I am called to a crash or wreck site involving a student who was driving impaired. And I am hoping through this program to change that.”
South Carolina usually administers $10 million-$12 million in grant funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
https://scdps.sc.gov/ohsjp/hs-grants
In Spartanburg County, the annual grant is $85, 674, and renewed annually by Clevenger.
Part of his support comes from several ugly facts: Spartanburg was #1 among all 46 state counties in 2025 in highway traffic fatalities with 74 – and is on pace to repeat this dubious distinction in 2026 with 47 fatalities so far up through Aug. 17.
Ten of them, over 2024 and 2025, were under the age of 18.
“The coroner’s office is trying to reach youth ages 15-19 about highway safety so as to avoid becoming a fatality statistic,” Clevenger said. “Research has shown that if you educate yourself about safe driving habits at an early age, the results can be beneficial for retention of those safe habits into adult life.”
Serving as the program’s driver safety coordinator is former state highway trooper David Marthers, who utilizes a battery-powered go-cart called SIDNE (Simulated Impaired DriviNg Experience), which simulates the effects of impairment on driving skills.
The simulator operates in two modes, normal and Impaired. In Normal Mode, the simulator’s steering, braking, and acceleration respond appropriately. In Impaired Mode, SIDNE reacts with delayed steering, braking, and acceleration, similar to how a driver would react if driving while impaired.
“I try to make students aware that there are a lot more distractions going on with drivers now than say the 1980s,” Marthers said. “People tend to pay more attention to their phone than their driving.”
One recurring item that he said tends to impress students year after year is seeing just how far a vehicle travels in just two seconds at 60 mph.
“That’s 88 feet per second – which, over two seconds, covers more than half the length of a football field – and some of the students come up to me afterward and say, ‘I had no idea,’” Marthers explained. “Which is why the most important thing about what we do is to eliminate driver distractions – They are almost as deadly as driving under the influence of alcohol or a drug.”
Upcoming SIDNE events include:
• Sept. 5-7: Chesnee Festival, Cada Park, 2-6 p.m.
• Sept. 12: Hogback Mountain, west of Landrum. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Marthers said October is open for other Upstate events, especially for groups that have never held one before.
And across the U.S., SIDNE is an idea that has increasingly caught on with law enforcement agencies since its invention in 2006.
At that time, officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 13,491 people were killed in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes, which accounted for 32 percent of the total motor vehicle traffic fatalities.
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/public/viewpublication/810995
By 2024, NHTSA death totals stood at 3,208 – among 315,167 people injured – by all forms of distracted driving.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving
And in 2025, the number of highway deaths from driver distraction totaled 11,904. All deaths from all three years were preventable.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving
Texting has now become the most alarming distraction. Law enforcement officials warn that sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, is the effect is equivalent to driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.
“Texting while driving increases your likelihood of being involved in a crash by 23 times,” said David Decatur, sheriff of Stafford County, Va., in an April 2026 Facebook post.
And Clevenger also stressed that in terms of aiding and abetting all distractions, speed is still as much a factor as ever in safe driving: that whether you are a teenager or a grandfather, slowing down is another easy way to avoid a life-changing wreck.
“I can’t emphasize how important it is getting our motoring public to realize speeding,” he said. “Because you are a few minutes late is not worth a life of severe injury to yourself or another motorist, as well as other crash causes that are totally avoidable.”
