Carolina Squat warning period winding down, fines to follow

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — In less than a month, Carolina Squat truck owners will face fines for operating their modified vehicles on public roads.

Gov. Henry McMaster signed legislation last spring to criminalize the low-riding trucks. It had overwhelming support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and made South Carolina the third state to enact a squat ban. The trucks are also outlawed in North Carolina and Virginia.

Under the new law, no front fender can be more than four inches above the height of the rear one. It provided a 180-day warning period, which ends on May 9.

Penalties range from between $100 to $300 depending on the number of offenses. A person convicted of driving a squatted truck three times within a 12-month period also faces a license suspension.

Myrtle Beach police Cpl. George Johnson, who testified in favor of the ban several times, said the issue rose out of necessity. Chief Amy Prock and Mayor Brenda Bethune also have spoken out in support of the prohibition.

“What we kept noticing was, we were having several collisions where either a driver would approach a stop sign and not see the vehicle in front of them, or as they were traveling along, they didn’t see a vehicle stopped,” Johnson said.

A pedestrian was killed along Ocean Boulevard in 2021 after being hit by a squatted struck.

Johnson said some trucks were so heavily modified that airbag sensors stopped working. In some cases, their designed impact zones were erased.

“On several of the collisions I worked, it was like a sports car versus a squatted truck,” he said.

Even an additional inch beyond a vehicle’s intended use can be dangerous. Johnson said authorities use a visual aid: modifying a police SUV just an inch above the legal limit.

Both were driving against a Mustang on a closed course to compare fields of vision.

“From a reasonable distance — about 30 feet — once we went that additional inch … you couldn’t see the top of the Mustang,” Johnson said. “And that that distance, you could barely see a child.”

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Hannah Huffstickler is a multimedia journalist at News13. She joined the News13 team in January 2024 after graduating from Coastal Carolina University in December of 2023. Keep up with Hannah on Facebook and Instagram. You can also read more of her work here.

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