Apparently the Naperville PD (Illinois) is cracking down on seat belt violations on 75th Avenue this week. Or as I prefer to refer, they’re hosting a fundraiser bonanza. :o
$60 ticket. I can afford it but I wish I didn’t have to. I also kinda thought that you couldn’t be pulled over for just a seat belt violation, that they could only piggyback a seatbelt ticket onto being pulled over for another reason… or maybe that was just in Indiana, where I learned to drive… I dunno. I am sad today.
You can lecture me about seat belt safety if you want. I always wear one on longer trips, but never to work. Since I’m fat it barely fits, but when the cop asked why I wasn’t wearing one he didn’t seem to care about that.
No lecture on safety but if you don’t want tickets, obey the traffic laws. I hate that seat belt laws have been legislated against me but since they are, I obey them. I use my blinker and don’t speed either. No tickets in about 20 years.
To the best of my knowledge, seat belt laws don’t allow for exceptions based on girth, so I’m not surprised the cop didn’t care.
Have you considered buying a seat belt extender?? a former coworker who weighed 300+ pounds purchased one of these to enable him to use his seat belt comfortably. If this facilitates your regular use of the seat belt, it would make your commute considerably safer, and eliminate the expense of tickets for violating the seat belt law.
Yup, Illinois law allows that to be the only infraction for pulling you over; it looks like that’s now/also true in Indiana as well. I know there are seatbelt extenders out there that might help with the fit. Sorry, that sucks.
Saw a cop car just today for a town I didn’t recognize that had “Seatbelt Enforcement” emblazoned on the back in pretty large letters. I know from the ads they’ve been running lately that MN’s been cracking down on seatbelt non-wearers, but I also didn’t think that that could be the sole reason they pulled you over. Apparently I’m incorrect, as were you.
I rarely get into the car without putting my seatbelt on directly after, though, so it doesn’t really affect me.
You poor, poor creature! You can afford it, but still you’re sad. You admit breaking the law, but thought there was some way to weasel out, how sad.
Er, um, I guess, poor, poor sad you! (You don’t want to be chastised, admit you broke the law and deserved the ticket, can’t think of what you’re wanting here, so I’ll just fall back on…) Poor, poor you!
My childhood seatbelt training was so effective that I instinctively put on my seatbelt even when I’m moving my car out of the driveway onto the street so my husband can get out of the garage. I’m travelling maybe 30 feet, going a smidge above neutral, and inching onto a traffic-less residential street. And still, the seatbelt is on. I feel all freaked out and naked if I’m in a moving car and I’m not buckled up.
Yeah, get a seatbelt extender. Many times auto dealers will have them, or you can get them online if you prefer. There is no reason to take the risk of going without a seatbelt nowadays.
Oh yeah - after you get a seatbelt extender, wear it! You may not drive fast on short trips, but you can’t control how fast other people are going. The first traffic accident I was in was when I was stopped at a red light; the car behind us rear-ended us, enough to solidly jar the car but not do too much damage to the rear bumper. That wasn’t true for the car that hit us - it had actually been rear-ended by someone who completely failed to slow down for the stopped traffic waiting at the red light, and slammed hard into them.
A lot of folks were opposed to seat belt laws because they didn’t want them to be used as income generators. So, to get around this, the law enforcement folks promised that they would only piggyback seat belt tickets onto other things. Then of course, once the law was passed they went back on their words, and started using them for income generation, which was the main thing that those opposed to seat belt laws did not want. So yeah, you were right at one time, but not any more.
In Maryland, they now set up spotters in some areas who inspect every car with binoculars to see if they are wearing their seat belt. The spotters then radio ahead to a group of cars further down the road with a description of every car whose driver isn’t wearing their seat belt, so that they can pull over several cars at once and write lots and lots of tickets.
It would be nice if law enforcement were used to catch real criminals, but I guess there isn’t enough profit in thieves and murderers.
Or, think quickly enough to put it on as you are pulling over. I often wear mine. The last two times I’ve been pulled over, I wasn’t, but I managed to hook it up as I was pulling over. Just saying.
Here’s a handy chart that details the seat belt laws around the country. All states except New Hampshire have at least secondary seat belt laws (piggyback), and to my surprise most of them (31) have primary laws (can ticket without any other offense). Also note that in half the states, the law only applies to the front seats for adults.
Sorry, no sympathy here. In the years that I was a cop, I never once unbuckled a dead body in a car. Seat belts save lives, period.
Pay the ticket (or do defensive driving if your state allows you burn off tickets that way), then lose some weight and/or get an extender and wear the belt.
I do lots of stupid stuff, both in my car and out, but not buckling my seat belt is not one of them. It has nothing to do with you, your driving skill or your size. It has to so with all of the other morons you share the road with that you have no control over.
No sympathy from me for folks who get caught breaking the law. You obviously do it daily, so you’ve had hundreds of days of free law breaking. Also, not wearing your seatbelt is essentially super laziness.
