A bill that would ban smoking in vehicles occupied by children under 8 survived an attempt to love it to death on the Senate floor Friday morning as proponents managed to reverse the vote on an amendment that probably would have doomed the legislation.

The cruicial test came on an amendment offered by Sen. John Astle, an Annapolis Democrat, to change the age limit on the bill so that the law would have protected all minors under 16. Astle chacterized the amendment as an improvement to a "bad" bill.

A bill that would ban smoking in vehicles occupied by children under 8 survived an attempt to love it to death on the Senate floor Friday morning as proponents managed to reverse the vote on an amendment that probably would have doomed the legislation.

The cruicial test came on an amendment offered by Sen. John Astle, an Annapolis Democrat, to change the age limit on the bill so that the law would have protected all minors under 16. Astle chacterized the amendment as an improvement to a "bad" bill.