COLUMBIA - Lawmakers are scheduled to decide today whether state troopers and other officers should be able to stop and ticket motorists for failing to buckle up.

"I'm not sure that we have the votes to pass it," said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, who supports the measure. But, Wilkins said, "I promised ... the people of this state that the House would take a straight-up vote on it."

Even if the bill, which passed the Senate in February, wins House approval, its fate would still be uncertain. Gov. Mark Sanford has said he dislikes the bill, although he stopped short of saying he would veto it.

Wilkins said Tuesday that based on a conversation he had recently with Sanford, "I'm expecting a veto." A two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate would be necessary to override a veto.

The law now allows police to issue a $25 ticket for not wearing a seat belt only if a driver is stopped for another violation. Lawmakers in 2001 forced the state Department of Public Safety to abandon its "Click It or Ticket" campaign, under which state troopers and local law enforcement issued tickets to seat belt violators after pulling them over for license and registration checks at roadblocks across the state.

Supporters of the bill before the House say the inability of officers to pull people over for not wearing seat belts is the reason so many S.C. drivers fail to use them. The most recent surveys show that only about 58 percent of drivers buckle up, compared with the national average of about 80 percent.

According to the Department of Public Safety, three-fourths of the 1,046 people who died in S.C. auto crashes last year were not wearing seat belts.

Opponents of the bill argue, however, that it infringes on individual freedom.

Were South Carolina to pass the bill, it would join 21 states, including North Carolina, that allow officers to pull over drivers who aren't buckled up. Even so, under the bill as it's presently written, South Carolina's penalty would be lighter than North Carolina's.

North Carolina levies a $25 fine, plus $100 in court costs -- and counts two points against the driver's license. Points can be used to increase insurance premiums. The S.C. bill calls for a $25 fine, no court costs, and no points.