"Stepped up enforcement" of seat belt law

cowboydoc · Jun 3, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

I think the point that many were trying to make is not that seatbelts aren't a good safety feature. They are and they do save lives. I think what they're saying is what's next? Do we ban sky diving, race car driving, riding horses, bull riding, etc. If I want to risk my life doing something that should be my right. It shouldn't be a politician or an insurance agency telling me what is safe and not safe to do. Does not wearing a seatbelt harm other people? For the most part no. If you're going to get hit hard enough to t-bone or something else you are not going to have any control of that car or the wits about you after a crash like that to even think about it. Anybody ever have an airbag deploy on them? If you have you know you don't even know what side of the earth you're on much less be able to control a vehicle.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 4, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

cowboydoc:

If I want to risk my life doing something that should be my right. It shouldn't be a politician or an insurance agency telling me what is safe and not safe to do. Does not wearing a seatbelt harm other people? For the most part no.

Gee, sorry. Couldn't resist quoting your comment. Especially after your comment in another thread about the law, right or wrong! After all, if you don't like a law you should change it. Isn't that what you said? Or am I misquoting you?

JEH

cowboydoc · Jun 4, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

I most certainly do believe in following the law. That doesn't mean that I don't disagree with some of the laws. I buckle up just about everytime I get in a vehicle. Do I think it should be a law no. Would I vote to repeal it and do I write my congressmen and woman when I see they vote for things like this? You bet. If I get a ticket am I going to cry over it? No because I broke the law.

SteveBenson · Jun 4, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

>If I get a ticket am I going to cry over it?

Or feel guilty about it? No, because it's not like it's morally wrong to not wear a seatbelt /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Anonymous Poster · Jun 4, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

( seatbelts should be required in vehicles.
Seatbelts are a good idea to wear
Seatbelts should be required for children under 18.
Seatbelts for an adult should be a choice .

Gary.)

I was looking around for an appropriate message to click on "reply", and this was a great one.

What I wanted to add was that while seatbelts should be a choice, ask anyone who has driven in competition what that choice is. I can't drive 100 yards without putting on a seatbelt. I feel naked without them. I often think about how inadequate the seatbelts are compared to the harness we use in competition. While it is everyone's choice, I can't think of a more stupid way to die.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 5, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

cowboydoc:

I most certainly do believe in following the law. 

And what, pray tell, if the law is stupid, wrong-header, self-destructive, clearly a violation of your right to live, your property rights, etc.? Do you really believe you have any duty to obey it? Do you really believe you have no right to think, and to act, to decide what is moral for yourself? What if the law (legislated) is clearly contrary to natural law? What if the law requires suicide (ask a Jew living in Germany in the 30s)? At what point do you have the right to disregard the law ? You're a doctor (an increasingly tough deal in the US). You have standards in what you do. What if your fellow citizens got together a passed a law which required you to do something you believed wrong (or prohibited you from doing something you believed was right) for your patients? Wouldn't you have a right to disobey their laws?

JEH

Anonymous Poster · Jun 5, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

OkeeDon:

I can't drive 100 yards without putting on a seatbelt. I feel naked without them. 

Interesting. I'm just the opposite. Wearing seat-belts makes me feel safe. I don't like feeling safe when driving. I prefer feeling a bit nervous. At least for me, makes me drive more "defensively." Of course, if it were likely I might have an accident that would be a different matter (like racing!).

JEH

Bird · Jun 5, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

( if it were likely I might have an accident that would be a different matter )

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gifIf you can tell when it's likely that you'll have an accident, you need to tell the rest of us how to do that, and then we'll avoid all of them. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif After 41 years of wearing a seat belt, I'm one of those for whom it just doesn't feel natural to not have one on. And I have no doubt it saved my life once (I was in the right passenger seat) when it wasn't likely we'd have an accident; i.e., no emergency, no racing, etc.

SteveBenson · Jun 5, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

Once again, I don't think anyone is saying seatbelts are not a good safety device or that you shouldn't use them. My points are as follows:

1) Think of all the other activities that people participate in that are more dangerous than driving your car (use your imagination here). Do we really want the insurance companies and government to step in and regulate every part of your life.

2) We are being overrun with real crime, and now we have to worry about terrorism. What are we doing wasting our resources busting honest hardworking people for not wearing their seatbelts?

3) As time goes on, society keeps taking more and more responsibility away from the individual. Basically, the seatbelt law assumes people are to stupid to make up their own minds on this topic.

4) Just because something is a law does not make it right. Someone mentioned that if you don't like a law then fight it. I do try to fight them, but fighting organization with huge lobbying resources (like insurance companies and casinos), is usually pretty fruitless.

1984 might be coming 50 years late (they've already started rewriting history in our schools), but that's where we are heading if things keep going the way they are. The irony is that when 1984 comes, people will probably feel "naked" when they get out of range of one of the government monitors /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

PitbullMidwest · Jun 5, 2003

Re: \"Stepped up enforcement\" of seat belt law

While I wear my belt every time I get in a car, I feel they should be optional. I also feel that rather than legislating their use, insurance companies (who according to some are behind every compulsory auto law) should simply state in your policy that they will not pay for injuries if a seat belt is not used. I'm sure that following an accident that was not covered some who choose not to wear their belt would be crying "THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW!!!"