CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Tree limbs on Cainhoy Road are a concern for one Lowcountry resident who has been driving in the same area for over 25 years.
Reece Flynt, Jr. says Cainhoy Road is a heavily traveled road with numerous cars and tractor-trailers that travel there daily.
Flynt says in the upcoming years, he can see the road widening just like Clements Ferry Road due to the constant growth in the area. Flynt says as soon as you turn onto Cainhoy Road from Clements Ferry Road, the tree limbs are so low that it’s dangerous.
Flynt says trucks sideswipe it all the time and there have been a couple of close calls of the tree falling or a car swerving.
“Tractor trailers come by, it’s a possibility of clipping that and maybe that might be the straw that broke the camel’s back for that tree to come down in the road and it’s a big enough tree that it’s going to seriously injure someone,” Flynt says.
Flynt suggests that if the tree is older or historic, an arborist can come in, evaluate that tree, and take off the tree-sized branch that’s hanging over the road. Flynt also brought up the point that during Hurricane Hugo, some main roads were blocked by trees. So much so, that he remembers cutting through trees just so emergency services, like the fire department and EMS, could come through neighborhoods. Flynt says since Charleston is a known area for hurricanes, why not just taper the trees away from the roads so there’s no possibility they’ll fall and injure a driver?
“Say a tree is 100 foot tall and it’s 50 feet from the road then that tree needs to be topped at 50 feet,” Flynt says. “That way it can’t possibly come in the road and you can taper it to the distance from the road and that should solve a lot of your problems—or at least prevent some of it.”
Flynt says he remembers an incident a while back on Cainhoy Road where a large tree branch was hanging at a 45-degree angle, and he was afraid it would be large enough to cause a driver to steer off the road and hit the trees into ongoing traffic. Flynt contacted the Cainhoy Road Fire Department, and the department was able to cut down the tree, which Flynt says was a sincere service.
Flynt says he thinks dangerous trees should be cut down not only on Cainhoy Road but all across South Carolina.
Flynt believes that once trees start being tapered back, awareness of people who have high trees on private property would increase and alert them to cut back their trees.
“They could say ‘Hey, you know what, maybe I should cut back my tree a little bit because it could fall in the road,’” Flynt says, “even in your neighborhood, those are all awareness things that I think everybody should keep in mind.”
Flynt says even cars on the opposite side of the road could be in danger. If a tractor-trailer sees a tree that’s in the way and swerves around it with an oncoming car driving in the opposite direction, it could possibly cause an accident.
“The tendency would be there to swerve and all of the trees that are that close that don’t give a medium or a safety zone for somebody to get off of the road, that could be mitigated,” Flynt says.
Deputy Chief Steve Goodwin of the Cainhoy Fire Department said they’d come out to see if the department could cut down the tree branch themselves.
South Carolina Department of Transportation officials say the issue has been forwarded to their evaluation team and encourage anyone who has a state road concern to submit a work order request here.
If you have a road that’s driving you crazy, you can submit your concern here.
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