A group of state senators wants to see if an expanded police unit can be created in the South Carolina Department of Mental Health to transport mental patients under doctors’ orders.
  
A subcommittee agreed to study adding the new Therapeutic Transport Unit to a bill overhauling how mental patients are handled when they must be moved.
  
Republican Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort says the subcommittee plans more meetings to further hash out the idea. Once members have details about a proposed unit, they’ll ask officials to figure out how much it will cost.
  
The unit would be based in regions of the state.
  
Lawmakers started working on the bill after two mental health patients drowned in the back of a locked police van while being moved during Hurricane Florence.