I am against laws that would criminalize suicide, although I doubt I would make such an attempt with or without such laws in place.
Did you actually read the thread? I linked to cites stated that they laws and the shift from secondary to primary enforcement induces more people to wear their seat belts. Here is another link if you are unconvinced. It states the following:
So no, it’s not possible that the laws have the opposite effect. The laws to convince people to wear seat belts. This saves lives, reduces injury, and save billions or dollars.
Is it the government’s business if you want to drive drunk? What about if you want to drive with you hearing or vision impaired? Driving is a privilege, not a right.
Yes I have. I have also read some of the cites. My problem is with how compliance is defined. If I get pulled over for speeding or if I drive through a sobriety check point I put my belt on. I have never been ticketed. I am in compliance?
I was just thinking the same thing.
Clearly not. I remember the shame of getting my first (and only!) speeding ticket - “You don’t understand, MrsAlpen, I am a CRIMINAL!” Unsympathetically she pointed out that I had been a criminal in this and many other ways for years. The only difference was that I had now been caught.
Compliance measurement is not based on pull-overs. It’s based on roadside observation studies for the most part. You can’t buck the evidence: the fact is that legislation absolutely DOES correlate with increased belt wearing.
Does driving without a seatbelt increase the likelihood of causing an accident? Does it stop you from getting out of the way of emergency vehicles?
Does anywhere actually have restrictions on deaf people driving (as you seem to imply)?
I think that it’s to do with two other (non-civil-liberty) issues: an important one and a minor one.
The important one is that people’s behaviour AND ATTITUDES are learned. In many areas of life we teach people how to interact safely with the world, and especially with those parts of the world that are “public goods” (I’m not an economist, so I’m probably using the term carelessly). Laws are part of the framework that societies create to teach and frame our behavour, for our own good as well as the good of others.
The less important reason is that the emotional and economic effect of these needless deaths on other road users and society is negative: it seems reasonable to me for society to say that the price of using our public infrastructure is to obey belt use laws.
If you have your own private race track THEN it is up to you.
You people really need to learn to separate the arguements here. They basically have nothing to do with one another.
Arguement one: Should everyone always wear their seatbelt? Is it safer and socially responsible?
Arguement two: Should the government be allow to legislate this? Should they be able to stop, detain and search a individual suspected of not doing so?
My opinion?
In the first case. Yes absolutely, everyone should always buckle up. I don;t sometimes, but I admit its stupid and my motives are probably childish. So be it.
In the second case, with the burning heat of a thousand suns, no. It is so beyond the realm of what I consider a reasonable suspension of liberty that I’m practically ready to move to a cabin in Montana and start writing manifestos.
If the point of this thread, as the OP mostly states, is to debate the first. I’ll happily agree and tell the people that want to argue that it’s “safer” or a personal choice not to that they are jackasses.
If we’re talking about the latter, well, we’re going to need to take this to the pit.
To compare legislating primary enforcement of seatbelt laws to that of broken tail-lights or disobeying traffic signals is ridiculous. Those please other people at risk. Those can make you into a roadway hazzard. Yes, you can legislate that, though enforcement of it needs to be confined to the issue at hand and not carte blanche to effect a search of the vehicle or to question or detain a individual.
The fact of the matter is this, making seatbelt laws primary enforcement allows a cop to pull you over, question you, and search your car without cause. Refusal is admission of guilt and will result in you being detained. I do not abide by this reduction of liberty, and anyone who cries “weak slippery slope” when you make the arguement about it hasn’t been watching what’s happened over the last decade or so.
If you want to force people to wear seat belts, I’m totally fine with that. The way it should be done is through insurance policies. If you get into an accident not wearing your seatbelt, your policy can be revoked. Your benefits will be reduced. You will no longer be able to be insured after the fact and in effect lose your freedom to drive. thats fine. Make it so financially dangerous to not wear one that people will comply, thats fine. Do not give the police the freedom to pull me over, fine me to raise funds for the budget shortfalls, and harrass me for whatever reason they may have. Thats the point of the second arguement.
You don’t fix this by writing traffic laws. I can’t fathom that anyone would rationalize a solution this circuitously. You fix it by changing the way insurance companies do business, and the way benefits are paid out.
If your arguement is “you’re costing me money by not wearing your seatbelt!”. You should be taking issue with the person you’re cutting that $1500+ a year check to, not the lawmakers.
Not here. I think we are #1 in compliance, approaching 95%.
No, but it does effect society in similar ways. Of course they are not exactly the same, but both effect other people on the roadway, and society as a whole.
No, I’m not talking about deaf people. I am talking about people who engage in behavior that diminish their ability to see or hear properly. For example, things like wearing headphones, playing excessively loud music, or excessive tinting of car windows.
Then who would pay for people when they get hurt? Your solution makes no sense. Society already bears 85% of the bill for these irresponsible people. Letting insurance companies off the hook would do nothing to improve the situation. Someone has to pay for people who are injured or killed. If the insurance company doesn’t the government will. Unless you suggest leaving these people in the street to die, the piper must be paid by someone. Furthermore, the costs to society exists in several forms, including higher insurance costs, health care costs, and taxes. Even if your idea was practical or logical, reforming the way insurance companies do business would only resolve part of the problem.
Besides the financial disincentive you suggest already exists in the form or primary enforcement of seat belt laws (ie. tickets). As it has been proven several times already, these laws convince people to wear their seat belts. This saves lives, and billions of dollars. Why is this so hard to understand?
Sorry, Omniscient, but once the generation that wasn’t always legislated to wear seat belts die, the law will be a non-issue to the kids that grew up always wearing them. Your cause will die with you.
::: shakes head:::
I cannot believe some of what I am reading here. I thought that the SDMB has some of the brightest, smartest people around. I may have to rethink that.
I am old enough to remember the days before seatbelts. When an accident just about guaranteed your head an all expense paid trip through the windshield. :smack: A very good friend of mine bought a car that had no belts in it back in the 60s. He drove to the parts store and bought a set. On the trip home, a tire blew and he hit a tree. (he was about 2 miles from home on a residential street. So much for the I don’t use them when it is safe theory) Anyway his passenger put his face thorough the windshield. Allow me to tell you exactly how he described the removal of glass from his face.
It does not surprise me in the least that this guy will not even back his car out of his driveway until his belt is fastened. Speaking for myself, having more that 3 brain cells running, I do not need to put my face through the windshield to know that this is a bad thing.
Ever since I had my first car I have required everyone who rides with me to fasten his or her seatbelt. My girlfriend (now the wife of Rick) was not used to using a belt and did not fasten her belt when she got into the car. I would sit there and wait. After a minute or so she would ask me why I had not started the car, my response was always the same. You are far too beautiful to have your face go through the windshield if a drunk pulls out in front of us.
Back in the late 90’s Nils Bolin the inventor of the modern 3 point belt was honored by the German Patent office as one of the greatest inventors of the 20th century (along with Diesel, Edison among others) At the time it was estimated that somewhere in the world once every 12 minutes a life was saved by a 3 point belt.
About a year or so before his death in 2002 Nis testified in a court case here in the US. A friend of mine was in the courtroom. My friend told me what Nils said when he was asked his opinion of people who did not wear a seatbelt. His reply is a classic
Seatbelts are like condoms. They only work when you wear them.
Furthermore seatbelt laws are like the law of gravity. Not only are they a good idea, they are not subject to repeal anytime soon.
Come on people don’t be a dickhead, wear the damn belt. Good dopers are hard to find.
Why? Why why why? For the love of whatever you find holy, why? Where is the slightest merest hint of a suspension of liberty here? Are you writing manifestos about the very real reductions in liberty brought in over the last 4 years for the miniscule danger posed within the US by international terrorism? About anything else, or is this the single most important issue in your world?
Do/would you refuse to weat seatbelts on planes or racing cars? Refuse the restrainer on roller-coasters? Refuse to look through dark glass at eclipses or when welding? Would you refuse to wear a helmet when in combat? Assuming the answers are no, what is it about cars and Americans that triggers such extreme emotions over something so trivial? I don’t think there is a single other country where this is an issue at all. It reminds me of their similar hyper-defensiveness over SUV and personal gun ownership.
I strongly feel that there is a link between these arguments that is supported by the statistics of belt use and accident injury (cited variously above). In other words, the distinction that you trumpet seems to me to be fairly arbitrary.
As you acknowledge, it IS safer and more socially responsible to buckle up. So how does a society most effectively educate individuals to act on this knowledge? The evidence is that legislation forms an important part of the most effective mix of measures. Without legislation, public awareness alone doesn’t provide anything like the same belt wearing rates. Why be allergic to the educative and beneficial effects of legislation? It doesn’t seem to me to be obviously less attractive than financial penalties, and we know it works in this case.
Remember, it is not YOUR highway, it’s OURS. We share it, and like many other things that we share I would like to have a say in how you use it, and acknowledge your right to have a say in how I use it. When you’re on a road you have built and paid for yourself then you can pretty much do as you please.
Datum: I would almost certainly not be alive today if I did not wear a seatbelt. I escaped with an impressive set of bruises and whiplash.
Wear a seatbelt.
I never wore a seatbelt 'till around age 22, now I too put one on to cross a parking lot, I also think “nanny state” laws are absurd.
Minor hijack: What’s the latest on seatbelts on schoolbuses? If I recall, one argument against was if a bus crashed into water, the driver couldn’t unbuckle 40+ kids. IMHO a 35mph fender bender is way more likely than a plunge into the drink.
I think I know what’s happening here; the so-called “nanny state” laws are getting stuck in people’s craws because for some unknown reason, people still think they’re living in a frontier country. Um, no, you’re not. You haven’t been for how many hundreds of years? You are living in a civilized country, and civilized countries have laws. Those laws are supposed to be for the greater good of all the citizens, and in all honesty, I believe most of them are, including seatbelt laws.
If you don’t like the laws of civilization, may I suggest Northern Canada (or possibly Alaska - I haven’t been there, so I couldn’t say for sure)? Sure, there are still lots of laws up north, but there’s nobody to enforce them (and very few people to be affected by your frontiersmanship), so have at it.
In what way shape or form did I say anything about refusing to wear a seatbelt? They should be worn at all times, they do make you safer. Done, check and mate. We get it.
Just because something makes you safer doesn’t mean it should be legislated. A law that gives the police the freedom to pull me over for no reason other than the fact I might not be wearing my seatbelt is EVIL. The seatbelt law is a red herring giving the cops carte blanche and it is absolutely going to be an extension of the Patriot Act lunacy.
“Hey, that guy might be suspicious, lets pull him over”
“But on what grounds?”
“I didn’t see a seatbelt from across 3 lanes of traffic”
“Good enough, lets see if he’s doing something unAmerican!”
Based on the arguement you people are making, the fact that McDonalds and Ben and Jerry’s have been proven to raise pretty much every health risk-factor means their product shoud be illegal. It raises costs to society at a monumentally higher rate than preventable car accident injuries. You should be ticketed if you’re caught eating a Big Mac! The logic is fucking stupid. Laws are not there to make insurance cheaper.
Look, making me wear my seatbelt is not a infringement on my liberty. I’m fine if you make me wear it. Make cars that won’t start without one, fine. Make me 100% uninsurable after and accident without a seatbelt, fine. I’ll wear it. Do not give the cops an excuse to pull me over without cause. That is about as fundamenal to the Bill of Rights as it gets.