By PAMELA HAMILTON
Associated Press Writer
June 9, 2005

COLUMBIA — Buckle up or pay $25.

That's the message of a new South Carolina law that allows police officers to pull over adult drivers if anyone in the car is not wearing a seat belt. Under the old law, officers could ticket adult drivers for seat belt violations only if the car was first stopped for another offense.

Gov. Mark Sanford allowed the bill to become law without his signature on Wednesday after hinting for weeks that he would veto the bill. Sanford said he decided not to veto the bill because it merely strengthens a "well-intentioned, but flawed" law that has been on the books since 1989.

"I don't like this bill. I've been clear on that," Sanford said. But, "I think that my real role is to enforce the laws that are created by the legislative branch — some I'll like, some I won't like."

The new law, which will take effect six months from June 9, imposes a $25 fine for those who violate the law. It bars seat belt citations from being reported to insurance companies or being used as evidence in court.

Those provisions weaken the law, making it unlikely to encourage drivers to wear seat belts, Sanford said.

"I would anticipate that this bill would not prove the results that people are looking for," Sanford said.

Advocates say the new will save lives. State Public Safety Department statistics show that 269 of 365 motor vehicle occupants who died so far this year were not wearing seat belts, agency spokesman Sid Gaulden said.

"In a lot of cases, unbelted people are ejected," said Donna Carter, state chairwoman for the South Carolina chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "A lot of injuries are sustained once the body leaves the car, and they're most of the time fatal."

South Carolina will join about 20 other states with primary enforcement of their seat belt laws, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The law should save about 50 to 80 lives within the first year in South Carolina, said Max Young, who heads the Public Safety Department's Office of Highway Safety.

In other states that have enforced such laws, seat belt usage has gone up by about 10 percentage points and statistics show that five to eight lives are saved for every percentage point increase in usage, Young said.

If the same holds true for South Carolina, seat belt usage should go up to 76 percent. "That's what I'm hoping for or even higher," Young said.

Legislators have tried for the past two years to strengthen the state's seat belt law. In 2004, a bill was bottled up by a few senators who said forcing people to wear seat belts infringed on their personal freedoms.

Copyright 2005, Anderson Independent Mail. All Rights Reserved.