Senators could save S.C. lives with votes

In the past five years, 502 young people not wearing seat belts have died in car crashes in South Carolina, according to the state Department of Transportation. Statistics show half would be alive today if they had buckled up.

How many more youths 19 and younger might die on state roads because they didn’t wear seat belts is now in the hands of the S.C. Senate.

Senators will debate this week whether to have a strong state seat belt law. Last year, the S.C. House passed a strong seat belt bill, which gives police the right to ticket people who aren’t wearing seat belts. To become law, that bill must clear the Senate and be signed by the governor.

Currently, the state has what is known as a weak seat belt law. It prevents police from ticketing drivers not wearing seat belts unless an officer sees the driver break another law.

To many, there is not much room for debate.

South Carolina has the nation’s third-highest traffic death rate.

So far this year, 76 of 95 people killed in vehicles on S.C. roads were not wearing seat belts.

And overwhelming scientific and statistical evidence shows that states that adopt strong seat belt laws automatically reduce traffic deaths of both children and adults — significantly, says Max Young, director of the S.C. Department of Public Safety’s highway safety office.

But in the world of the 46-member state Senate, libertarian beliefs of some senators carry more weight than fatality statistics. Those senators say seat belt laws take away American liberties.

“Even if it ends up resulting in a few more deaths, it’s a person’s choice not to wear the belt. We do not need government being Big Brother,” said Sen. John Kuhn, R-Charleston.

Sen. President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, last week ridiculed a tough seat belt law on the Senate floor.

“The safety squads of America think they know how people should live their lives,” said McConnell. “But what’s next? Are we to dictate what food a restaurant can cook?”

Such arguments dismay seat belt law supporters. They cite real-life examples of laws saving lives.

Rep. Jim Stewart, R-Aiken, said in a Monday interview that in 1974, his sister Joy, then 18, fell asleep at the wheel. Her car hit a bridge; she died. It was the kind of accident in which, had she been buckled in, she would have lived, Stewart said.

“If there had been a law to wear a seat belt, she would have been wearing one,” Stewart said. That’s because Joy was the conscientious kind of person who tried to obey the laws, he said.

Stewart’s story helped convince Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, that he was right to change his position from opposing a tough seat belt law to supporting one.

Ryberg said after talking to Stewart — and emergency room staffers who told him about injuries suffered by people who don’t wear seat belts — he will fight for a tough seat belt law.

“I have come from the far side of this ... to the correct side,” Ryberg said.

A state’s highway death rate drops significantly when a state passes a tough seat belt law because more people — wanting to obey the law — start buckling up.

“Each percentage point in seat belt use will save about eight lives in South Carolina,” said safety expert Young.

Currently, state seat belt use is about 70 percent. Officials say it could go as high as 85 percent if a strong seat belt law is passed.

According to a study released last month by the S.C. Department of Transportation, a strong seat belt law each year would:

• Save 105 lives

• Prevent 1,105 injuries

• Save $183 million in economic losses

It also would gain South Carolina an $11 million, one-time federal payment given to states with strong seat belt laws.

A crucial seat belt statistic involves children, said safety expert Young. When adults buckle up, the seat belt usage rate of children in the car is 90 percent. When adults don’t buckle up, children buckle up only 25 percent of the time, he said.

Rep. Joel Lourie, D-Richland, who led the fight in the House last year to pass a tough seat belt law, said organizations supporting a strong seat belt law include many safety, law enforcement, business and health groups in South Carolina.

They include: MADD, S.C. Police Chiefs Association, the S.C. Safe Kids Coalition, the S.C. Trucking Association, AAA of the Carolinas, AARP, the S.C. Chamber of Commerce, the S.C. Medical Association and the S.C. Independent Insurance Agents of South Carolina.

A majority of the 46 senators want a tough seat belt law, senators say.

“There are more than enough votes to pass it, if we can get it to a vote,” Ryberg said.

But opposing senators have vowed to filibuster or attach complicated amendments to the bill to kill it, Kuhn said.

Seat belt supporter Sen. John Land, D-Clarendon, said if opponents win, they will gain a deadly victory.

“They are trying to kill the bill, and they will kill South Carolinians in the process,” Land said.