Senators killed a proposed tougher seat-belt law Wednesday, finally giving in to weeks of filibustering and allowing the Senate to turn to other matters.

Lawmakers voted 23-21 to set aside a bill that would allow police to stop adult drivers who aren’t wearing seat belts. The vote ended a two-month-long filibuster led by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, who opposed the bill.

Seat-belt bill opponents called the vote a victory. The bill’s supporters were dismayed.

“This was a feel-good piece of legislation to make the public feel like we had passed a (strong) seat-belt law,” said Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, who opposed the bill because he thought it also should give police the right to search a stopped car.

But a majority of senators wanted the law, said Sen. John Land, D-Clarendon. He said Senate rules allowed a small group of opponents to hold up the Senate until enough people gave in and agreed to kill it.

He and other supporters said they will keep pushing for the law, which already had cleared the House.

“We won’t quit until we get a real vote on it,” Land said. “Normally right prevails, and I think it will prevail before it’s all over.”

Because this is the second of a two-year legislative session, backers of a tougher seat-belt law almost certainly will have to start from scratch in both chambers next year.

South Carolina law already requires drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, but police can’t ticket adult drivers unless they are pulled over for another violation.

Police can stop cars when children or drivers younger than 18 aren’t wearing seat belts.

By passing the new law, the state could have saved hundreds of lives and taken advantage of $11 million available from the federal government under various highway bills before Congress, Land said.

Opposition came from all sides. Unlike Knotts, McConnell and others said the stronger law added an unnecessary regulation that would give police too much power. McConnell said the majority of senators realized the filibuster wouldn’t end unless they voted to kill the bill.

“There was no reason to continue to beat a dead horse,” McConnell said.

Weeks have gone by in which the Senate did little except debate the seat-belt law. Some senators who support the bill said that was what pushed them to finally agree to kill it.

Wednesday afternoon, just after the Senate opened and said the Pledge of Allegiance, Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, took the floor and, in an unusual procedural move, asked for a vote to kill the bill.

Supporters protested loudly, but it took just an hour to quell the debate and take a vote.

Thomas, a supporter of the bill, said the Senate had to be freed up to move on to other issues.

“The honor of the Senate is at stake,” Thomas said, because of media reports that the filibuster was preventing lawmakers from getting anything done.

“I decided that if we could ... end this continuing, excruciating debate, I would,” he said. “Somehow, this issue had to be resolved.”

Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, who pushed for the stronger law, said he had hoped “to make a meaningful change” by passing the law.

“To me, the travesty here is that minority rules and the majority is unheard,” he said.

On Tuesday, McConnell and Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, blamed the filibuster for delaying and all but killing several issues waiting for Senate consideration, including Gov. Mark Sanford’s proposed income tax cut.

The tax cut was to have been debated in a Finance Committee meeting, which Leatherman, the chairman, canceled Tuesday because of the filibuster. Rescheduling would be virtually impossible until the Senate finished debating the budget in two weeks, he said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, enough senators who supported the stronger seat-belt law changed their votes to break the deadlock. The vote fell mostly along party lines.

Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said senators had worked out the compromise that morning.

“Technically, the seat-belt bill blocked us from getting to the budget next week,” he said.

With the filibuster out of the way, Senate business fell back to normal, with members bemusedly comparing how much legislation they were getting passed.

By 4:30 p.m., Leatherman had rescheduled the Finance Committee meeting. Sanford’s tax cut will be discussed at 9 a.m. today.

Sanford is in danger of ending his second year having passed no major legislation, and the tax cut is his best shot this year. With the decision to reschedule the Finance Committee, the governor’s plan went from all but dead to kicking again.

“This is obviously the governor’s top legislative priority,” said Sanford’s spokesman Will Folks. “We’re obviously pleased.”

But for those who had hoped this was the year for a stronger seat-belt law, the day was a bitter disappointment.

Rep. Joel Lourie, D-Richland, who shepherded the bill through the House, said he moaned in disbelief as the Senate voted.

“It was a little like watching a house burning down,” he said.

Charles Daniel, a project manager for a seat-belt campaign run by Benedict College, had participated in a news conference urging passage of the bill just the day before.

When he heard the bill was defeated, “I was kind of stunned,” he said. But he has hope it will pass in the future.

“Maybe another day, maybe another time.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com