GREENVILLE, S.C. — With temperatures rising and last weekend's historic snowfall finally beginning to melt, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis held a press conference Monday urging residents to continue staying home — not due to remaining ice, but because of what he called "the far more dangerous and permanent condition of Greenville County drivers."

"Yes, there are still some icy patches on bridges and overpasses," Sheriff Lewis said, visibly exhausted. "But let me be absolutely clear: the roads were not safe before the storm, they were not safe during the storm, and brother, they will not be safe after the storm. That's not a weather issue. That's a Greenville County issue."

The sheriff's warning comes as road conditions have technically improved, with most major thoroughfares now clear of snow and ice. However, authorities say this has only increased the danger by allowing local motorists to resume their normal driving patterns.

"We had three days of relative peace," said Captain Denise Hartwell of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. "People stayed home. Accident rates plummeted. For 72 beautiful hours, no one tried to merge onto I-85 at 34 miles per hour while looking at their phone. It was the safest this county has been since 1987."

Emergency management officials confirmed that during the snowstorm, 911 calls related to traffic incidents dropped by 94 percent — a figure they attribute entirely to residents being unable to leave their homes rather than any improvement in driving ability.

"The snow didn't make them better drivers. It just trapped them," explained Dr. Richard Huang, a traffic safety researcher at Clemson University. "The moment that ice melts, you're going to see F-150s doing 85 in a 45 through Cherrydale while the driver eats a biscuit with both hands. That's not pessimism. That's data."

Local authorities have identified several specific threats that will return as roads clear, including:

• Drivers treating Woodruff Road as a "no-rules Mad Max hellscape"
• The complete inability to use a roundabout correctly
• Aggressive tailgating on Pleasantburg while simultaneously refusing to exceed 22 mph
• Left-lane camping on I-385 "as if it were a constitutional right"
• The Pelham Road Publix parking lot, which officials have classified as a "Level 5 hazard zone"

"I've worked traffic enforcement for 19 years," said Sergeant Tom Bledsoe. "I've seen a woman put on mascara, eat yogurt, and FaceTime her sister simultaneously while merging onto Haywood Road. During the snow, she stayed home. Now she's back out there. They're all back out there."

The Sheriff's Office also noted that the combination of melting snow and Greenville drivers creates a uniquely dangerous feedback loop, as drivers who already refuse to adjust speed for conditions will now also refuse to acknowledge that wet roads exist.

"They see pavement, they think summer," Hartwell said. "Doesn't matter if there's black ice on every overpass from Mauldin to Travelers Rest. If they can't see snow, the storm is over in their minds."

When asked when it would be safe to resume normal driving, Sheriff Lewis stared silently at the podium for several seconds before responding.

"I'll be honest with you," he said. "I don't know that it ever was."

At press time, a four-car pileup had already been reported on Laurens Road after a driver attempted to U-turn across five lanes of traffic to reach a Chick-fil-A.