AIKEN - Not buckling up could cost South Carolina drivers more than their lives.

Thanks to a new law that goes into effect next year, police will be allowed to pull drivers over for not wearing their seat belts, a measure supporters say will cut down on the number of traffic fatalities in the state.

In the past, drivers might have turned a deaf ear to pleas to buckle up, said Aiken Public Safety Sgt. David Turno, but they will learn to put their seat belts on if they get slapped with a $25 fine.

"Education has been the tool in the past, but it hasn't worked," Sgt. Turno said. "This allows us the enforcement part."

Existing law allows police officers to ticket adult drivers for not wearing their seat belts, but only after pulling them over for a separate traffic violation.

The new law makes not buckling up a primary offense.

It won't make much of a difference to Aiken resident Charles Kleinkauf.

Recently discharged from the Army, Mr. Kleinkauf said Rhode Island requires drivers to wear seat belts, too. Now it's just habit, he said.

"I'm always buckled up," he said during an afternoon stop in downtown Aiken. "I think they save lives, and I know in the military they make it mandatory."

According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, 470 people have been killed on state highways this year, including pedestrians and cyclists.

Of those, 365 had access to seat belts, but 269 were not wearing them.

Thirteen people have been killed in traffic-related accidents in Aiken County in 2005, Deputy Coroner Darryl Ables said. Six of those people were not wearing seat belts.

Last year, Mr. Ables said, 18 of the 31 people who died in traffic accidents in Aiken County were not buckled up.

Gov. Mark Sanford was expected to veto the bill, but it passed into law Thursday when he didn't sign it by midnight. The governor had said he planned to kill the bill, which was supported by most of the General Assembly, because he thought it needed stiffer penalties.

On Thursday, Mr. Sanford sent a letter to Senate President Andre Bauer explaining why he allowed the bill to become law.

Saying the penalties were too soft, Mr. Sanford wrote that it's not the government's job to "protect people from themselves," nor is it to "criminalize poor individual choices or the self-inflicted wounds that accompany them."

South Carolina has no other law that could be flaunted in front of an officer without fear of arrest or a ticket, Mr. Sanford wrote.

"This law in essence calls on police officers to enforce an existing law," he concluded. "That is consistent with the way we enforce all other laws in this state, and despite my personal reservations, I see no compelling reason to prohibit police officers from requiring citizens to comply with an existing law."

The new law, which goes into effect in January, calls for a $25 fine for each person in the car not wearing a seat belt, to a maximum of $50 per vehicle. The infractions will not be reported to insurance companies, and they cannot be used in civil suits.

Police are required to track the race, age and gender of those stopped for seat belt infractions to spot and prevent profiling.

Associated Press reports were used in this article.

Reach Sandi Martin at (803) 648-1395, ext. 113, or sandi.martin@augustachronicle.com.