MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — The South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force launched a new program that would give truck drivers free access to human trafficking training.
“The United States is the number 1 destination of human trafficking and South Carolina as a state sits between 2 of the top 20 human trafficking hubs in the country…that is Charlotte and Atlanta,” said South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.
The program, ‘SC Highway Heroes Campaign’, is a collaboration between Wilson’s office, the SC Trucking Association, the Office of Highway Safety, the State Transport Police and the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Wilson said it’s a free 30 minute course that will help truck drivers who are on the roads of South Carolina, identify cases of human trafficking.
“The more eyeballs we can get out there, the more boots on the ground we can get out there, the more people we can get out there that know what human trafficking looks like when they see it, it’ll help us be able to report it and go after it,” Wilson said.
Truck driver, Patrick Murphy from Florence, SC. was the first one to take the course.
“For being a driver as long as I have, I’ve seen so much of that through the years…prostitution,” said Patrick Murphy, a truck driver with Ard Trucking Company.
Murphy said being a truck driver for 30 years, he’s always been aware but now he knows what to look for. “My main thing is make, model and vehicle. A description of who’s driving,” said Murphy.
Murphy said for all of the hours that he and truck drivers spend on the roads that, “us as drivers are the perfect fit to be the soldiers of the road.”
The online course, Truckers Against Trafficking, is available at SCHighwayHeroes.com.
