You may want to sit down for this.

A new report confirms what we already suspected.

South Carolina has the worst roads in the country.

Consumer Affairs looked at how much each state spends per mile of road, the number of motor crash fatalities in each state, the percentage of total capital spending toward road expansion and repair, and surveyed 1,418 consumers across the US about their road conditions.

It found out of 77,364 miles of road, 18% are in “poor” condition. That’s 13,926 miles of unfit roads.

35% were found in “good” condition.

The state spends $26 per mile on roads. That’s more than the average $25 per mile that the top 10 states with best roads in the US spend, according to the study.

So why are our roads in such bad shape?

The Nerve’s Rick Brundrett reported the SC Department of Transportation has said 80% of about 42,000 miles of roads it maintains needs repaving or rebuilding.

DOT identified 465 out of 750 “structurally deficient” bridges to be replaced.

As of Aug. 31, the cash balance in a special fund created by the gas-tax-hike law was $451.7 million, or 54.5% of the $828.1 million in collected revenues over 26 months, DOT records show.

Yet relatively little has been spent and few major repaving projects completed.

DOT claimed in its 2018 annual report that it had filled about 411,000 potholes statewide that year.

DOT contended it had patched about 43,000 potholes statewide in January and February this year as part of its heavily promoted “Pothole Blitz.”

State officials spent $13 million on “crack sealing” and “safety improvement” such as widening shoulders and adding guard rails through last August, Brundrett reported.

Why not a permanent fix?

DOT said, “For 3 decades, beginning in 1987, SCDOT had one of the lowest fuel taxes in the US. The result of this 30+ years of highway funding policy is poor pavement conditions and more than $40 billion in backlogged paving needs across the state.

“The page was turned in 2017 when the Roads Bill became law on July 1 of that year.

“Consistent with our priorities for fixing our state’s pavements, paving projects ($724 million) constitute the bulk of the current $1 billion in road work funded by the new gas tax fund. The September 30, 2019 gas tax trust fund cash balance is $454 million with about 2X that amount under contract awaiting road contractors to complete work.”

SC joined Louisiana, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Delaware at the bottom of the list.

Residents of these states said the roads have potholes, illegible street signs and regular heavy congestion.

Wyoming has the best roads in the US, followed by Kansas, Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana.

Many people commented on their states’ quick seasonal weather cleanup.