After years of not even being able to get it to a vote, the state Senate Wednesday passed a tougher seat belt bill. The bill would give the state primary enforcement, which means police and troopers could pull over people they see who aren't buckled up. Right now, they can write a ticket only if they stop a driver for another violation first.

State Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, argued against the bill, saying whether to wear a seat belt is an individual choice that doesn't affect anyone else.

Mary Leverette disagrees. She and her two sons, then 11 and 9, were in a wreck in August of 1998 on I-26 in Spartanburg. A driver going the other direction hydroplaned, bounced off a guardrail then crossed the median and hit her head-on.

"Maybe if he had had a seat belt on he could've controlled his car better," she says. "And that's why I feel that mandatory seat belts, a law, should be enacted. Because he not only harmed himself, he harmed others. And his right for individual choice and freedom ends, in my opinion, when he harms my family." 

She and her sons were not seriously injured. She says if not for their seat belts, they would have been killed. That's because not only were they hit head-on, a tractor-trailer following too closely also hit them from behind after the first impact.  

"The driver of the car that hit us head-on was not wearing a seat belt and he was ejected from the car and thrown across the Interstate," Leverette says. "He, too, survived. But to a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old, seeing that happen was very traumatic. Not only did they not know what was happening to their mother, they were seeing this other person...very vulnerable and thrown out." 

She says her sons had nightmares for months about what they saw. "I'm a proponent of individual rights. I think it's my choice to behave responsibly or not responsibly. However, when behaving irresponsibly harms others, then I don't see it as a difficult decision."

The bill now goes to the House, which passed it last year. The unknown is whether Gov. Mark Sanford would sign the bill. He's in favor of limited government intrusion whenever possible, which worries Leverette about whether he would sign it.

As a general rule, the governor won't comment on whether he'll sign or veto a bill that hasn't reached his desk yet.