A bill that would strengthen independent investigations of police officers involved in traffic collisions is close to passage in the Legislature, its backers said Thursday.

The bill more clearly spells out when and how outside agencies must investigate such wrecks.

“This is a much-needed improvement,” Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said of the bill that is intended to stop the widespread practice of police not applying a 1994 law designed to prevent the appearance of favoritism for law enforcement over private motorists.

Starting with the Highway Patrol, which investigates more wrecks than local agencies, police interpreted the 10-year-old law to apply only when law enforcement vehicles make physical contact with another vehicle or property.

That exempted wrecks resulting from police chases when the cruiser did not strike anything but the pursuit led to a collision.

Such a situation occurred last year when Beverly Meyers 50, died after a Forest Acres police chase.

An inquiry by The State newspaper into the circumstances of Meyers’ May 27, 2003, death led to questions about the objectivity of police investigations.

Forest Acres police chased a suspected check counterfeiter through a neighborhood at speeds up to 65 mph. The suspect ran a stop sign and struck a car in which Meyers was riding.

Because a Forest Acres cruiser did not strike the station wagon carrying Meyers, the Highway Patrol declined to investigate, citing its interpretation of the law, said Jeff Moore, director of the S.C. Sheriffs’ Association. The association supports changing the law.

That left the Forest Acres Police Department to investigate its own officers’ conduct. It subsequently cleared them, but has not disclosed its findings, Chief Gene Sealy said. Pursuit policy changes are being considered.

Critics — including the author of the original law, then-Sen. Larry Richter, and the attorney general’s office — said the patrol and other police agencies have been misinterpreting the law.

To settle the dispute, sheriffs around the state pushed for the current bill.

It flew through the House with barely an objection, said Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Richland, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee narrowed the scope of the bill, which has received two of three required votes in the Senate.

A final Senate vote could occur next week. But the House must approve the Senate’s changes. Supporters are optimistic the bill will pass.

Sealy, the Forest Acres chief, said he supports the bill because it clarifies when an independent investigation must occur and mandates taking statements from witnesses who saw the collision but were not involved in it.

Those witnesses would become watchdogs for police misconduct, he said.

This week, supporters plan to merge the proposal with two other law enforcement bills in order to get them approved in the waning days of the session, according to Hutto, Moore, and Laura Hudson of the state crime victim advocates’ organization.

“We’re not doing this to kill this bill,” Hutto said of piggybacking the legislation.

Highway Patrol spokesman Sid Gaulden said the agency would discuss the legislation only if it becomes law.

Moore said sheriffs have taken a public position to improve the widely misunderstood 1994 law and plan to see the legislation through.

“I don’t intend to let (the bill) die,” said Moore, who doubles as lobbyist for the state’s 46 sheriffs. “It’s too important.”

Independent investigations provide credibility that police are not treated differently from private motorists, Moore said.

Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, won a change in the House-passed version, which he said was too broad.

The House wanted to ban police from investigating their own wrecks when the collision occurred during “a police action.”

Martin said defense attorneys could twist that broad term. Lawyers could blame their clients’ erratic driving, Martin said, on a police action triggered merely by a “be-on-the-lookout” bulletin for suspects.

“I just want to make sure we’re not creating a trap for law enforcement,” said Martin, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that reviewed the bill.

The proposed law also requires police to question witnesses who see police-involved wrecks.

Meyers’ daughter, Renee Kozlowski, is surprised by that provision, though she supports the bill.

“Why does it even have to be in the law?” Kozlowski asked of the witness-questioning provision. “I would think that would be a given.”

Still, she said, “I’m glad that finally — if this is what it has to come to — that it is spelled out who has to investigate and what they have to do when the police are involved and the collision leads to a death.”

Kozlowski said the 21-year sentence that motorist Andre Roach received in her mother’s death helped the family heal.

But she resents Forest Acres police for chasing a nonviolent offender.

“They knew where this man lived. They had his license plate. They knew his rap sheet.

“It just seems their persona is like cowboys and Indians,” Kozlowski said. “They need to pull back.”

Longtime crime victim advocate Hudson accepts the altered version of the bill, which she said has “much stronger language.”

But, “I don’t think it goes quite far enough. I think there needs to be another bill that covers other actions by law enforcement (besides pursuits). That may be another bill for next year.”

Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.