Politics trump public safety

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Politics triumphed over public safety last week as the state Senate killed a tougher seat-belt law that would have saved the lives of more South Carolinians. It was a pitiful failure of leadership on the part of state senators.

Sen. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn, who earlier had supported the tougher seat-belt law, unexpectedly asked for the vote last Wednesday that scuttled the bill. A narrow majority of senators wanted to end the debate because a filibuster by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell had blocked other legislation from advancing.

But there was a clear alternative to killing the bill. Twenty-eight senators could have voted to end McConnell's filibuster, and then voted to approve the bill. And news reports indicated the bill earlier had the support of at least 28 senators.

But several of those supporters refused to confront McConnell, a powerful figure in the Senate who can influence other senators' bills and pet projects. They were deterred either by partisanship, misguided senatorial courtesy or the fear of offending McConnell. Also contributing to the stalemate were archaic Senate rules that allow a small minority of senators to bottle up legislation and thwart majority rule through the filibuster.

The upshot is that McConnell won the day, and South Carolina lost. A stronger seat-belt law almost certainly would have saved the lives of more South Carolinians. Other states that adopt tougher seat-belt laws see higher usage of seat belts. And research has shown time and again that seat belts save lives.

In this state, the tragic figures offer an unequivocal message about the importance of seat belts: As of April 29, of the 256 people killed in car accidents in South Carolina, 204 were not wearing seat belts. About 70 percent of the 1,000 people who die on South Carolina roads every year were not wearing seat belts.

South Carolina has the nation's third-highest rate of fatalities on the road and the No. 1 rate of drunken-driving fatalities. There's no excuse for the failure of state leaders to enact a tougher seat-belt law that might have helped to erase those disgraceful distinctions. Gov. Mark Sanford also never pushed the bill and in fact publicly expressed a "bias" against it, according to his spokesman. By killing the bill, senators also turned away $11 million in federal highway funds that might have been put to good use repairing crumbling and dangerous roads.

South Carolina needed a strong primary seat-belt law that would have allowed law enforcement officers to stop and ticket a driver and other occupants for not wearing seat belts. With so many people dying in car accidents in South Carolina, it's unconscionable that senators refused to approve a seat-belt bill designed to prevent future tragedies on the road.