COLUMBIA, S.C. - The House gave key approval Wednesday to a bill that would allow police to stop a motorist for not wearing a seat belt.

The bill, which received second reading on a 65-46 vote, would create a primary law allowing seat belt enforcement. South Carolina currently has a secondary seat belt law for adults. That means police cannot ticket a motorist who is 18 or older for seat-belt violations unless the motorist is pulled over for another reason, such as speeding.

A person caught not wearing a seat belt would be fined $25.

Opponents say the bill takes away an individual's rights.

Adding new laws does not save people's lives, said Rep. Gary Simrill, R-Rock Hill.

"This bill is about empowering government, not empowering people," Simrill said.

Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, said the bill is the beginning of a slippery slope where government could tell citizens not to talk on cell phones, eat or smoke in their cars.

Government should trust people to make intelligent decisions, said Rep. John Graham Altman.

"At some point, someone has to say enough. Enough of this nanny business. Enough of telling us what to do," said Altman, R-Charleston.

But there are occasions "when the greater good of society overrides personal liberties," said Rep. B.R. Skelton, R-Six Mile.

South Carolina's traffic fatality rate is the third-highest in the nation, said Rep. Joel Lourie, D-Columbia. Each year, about 1,000 people are killed and 50,000 injured on South Carolina highways, he said.

About 66 percent of people killed on South Carolina highways are not wearing seat belts, Lourie said.

The primary enforcement law would prevent fatalities and injuries and cut down on millions of dollars in health care costs related to the accidents, Lourie said.

Rep. Denny Neilson, D-Darlington, said she is living proof that seat belts save lives.

Neilson was critically injured in 2001 when a tractor-trailer crossed into her lane on U.S. 15 near the Lee-Darlington County border and struck the car she was driving.

Neilson spent six weeks in intensive care. Almost all of the bones on the left side of her body were broken.

Emergency workers told her she likely would have been killed had she not been wearing a seat belt, Neilson said.

"It hit me personally. I know seat belts saved my life," she said.