We discussed the driving on the phone thing last year its been shown to generally make drivers as dangerous as being drunk, from lack of attention to driving. While TSN championed passage of seat-belt laws under the banner of reducing highway fatalities and auto insurance rates, no mention was made that the real purpose was to avoid installation of air bags. ), The laws faced significant political pressure. The Reagan administration was put in a bind, says Mashaw. No good reason existed, she reasoned, because the seat belt law is unconstitutional. The New Seatbelt Law: Will It Buckle Under Constitutional Attack? The statute even went one step further by stating that violating the seat belt law could not be considered negligence, which meant insurers would still have to pay out if a driver had injured themselves while not wearing one. You do not live on an island. @dynamicduo Should people also be free to foot their own medical costs when they go flying through the windshield? The benefit of an airbag is that it is passive its there ready to save your life. Some places in the USA require a special baby seat to be used for children under a certain age. Those seats get to be pretty complex (and expensive) though I have heard that research shows that they actually endanger children over part of the legally required age range. Can You Go to Court for a Seatbelt Ticket? It isnt just about the seatbelts, but setting a firm limit on what the government can and cant do. Seat belts do save lives. Opponents of a law in Nebraska were more successful in 1986; a repeal initiative barely passed. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent in support of seat-belt laws have been wasted. Laws designed to protect us from ourselves may be well-intentioned, but they are an infringement of our freedom and are invariably counterproductive. This will be very useful when writing about how seat belt laws are out of the governments control to make such laws. Seat belt law declared unconstitutional - State Patrol to keep issuing In that 1985 report from the Associated Press, a spokesman for a pro-seat-belt-law coalition derided the libertarian folks who were offering the most opposition. Moreover, some seat-belt systems were defective.6 As a result, since 1985 the automakers have faced hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in hundreds of lawsuits. suggesting you have a right to not wear a seatbelt and potentially kill yourself and inflict pain, suffering, and potentially a lot of emergency care cost to your family and insurance is well. Not that I think the law is the right way to get people to do THAT, either. I assure you, friends, some freedom precious to you will be next to fall, Rose Marie Gibbins wrote in January 1988 in a letter to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. And there is an incentive to wear seat belts, two of them, actually. No nonpsychiatric doctor would dare attempt to force a person to use a medical device or take a drug or have surgery or other medical treatment without full consent. Quora - A place to share knowledge and better understand the world The most comprehensive seat belt policy is a primary enforcement seat belt law that covers all occupants, regardless of where they are sitting in the vehicle. Had the law required all cars to carry airbags, new car prices would have appreciated accordingly creating a mini-shock to the market. Primary enforcement allows a law enforcement officer to stop and ticket a driver if they observe a violation. And there was no restriction on their personal liberties if the belt could be worn incorrectly. Reddit - Dive into anything but, your property is riding on public property, which gives the government the right to establish and maintain laws governing seatbelts. Even if that is true, that talking to a person in a headset is more abstract than a person in the back seat that you dont look at, I think that banning cell phones while driving would be a toothless law. Even so, all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all 5 inhabited U.S. territories have separate child restraint laws. Such laws are an unwarranted intrusion by government into the personal lives of citizens; they deny through prior restraint the right to determine ones own individual personal health-care standard. The Seat Belt Law - Unconstitutional - WordPress.com But again, critics of the laws often didnt dispute that seat belts saved lives, as many (though not all) opponents of vaccination standards dont dispute the efficacy of the vaccines. In response to Doles promise, the automakers created the lobby Traffic Safety Now (TSN) and began spending millions of dollars to pass seat-belt laws. It is about money. When the laws in both countries were updated in the early 1990s to include back-seat adult passengers, the effect was less noticeable. was putting pressure on states to either pass a seat belt law or be excluded from possible locations for a multibillion-dollar Saturn plant. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Seatbelts are designed to keep you safe in the event of a crash. He couldnt get him out of the restraint, nor the car. The controversy first heated up in 1973, when the NHTSA required all new cars to include an inexpensive technology called a seat belt interlock mechanism that prevented a vehicle from starting if the driver wasnt buckled up. When New Seat Belt Laws Drew Fire as a Violation of Personal - HISTORY If the passage of seat-belt laws did anything, it slowed the downward trend in highway fatalities started years before the passage of such laws. Unless the Constitution has been replaced with actuary tables, the governing principles of this country are still based on basic rights of individual freedom, Goldbeck wrote. But the seat belt laws took years to introduce fully. Despite the protests of a vocal minority, attitudes to face masks are changing as evidence shows that the interventions will make a difference and with time adoption will continue to increase, just as happened with seat belts. While using seat belts saves some lives, doing so can injure and kill others. What the state is saying is: We know what is best for you. In a surprise ruling, the justices voted unanimously to block the Reagan administration and enforce the NHTSAs rule. (the freedom from physical restraint made me laugh). Requiring a seatbelt is not arbitrary or despotic. Why, for instance, does there seem to be differences between the adoption of the rules in different countries? The state has no authority to take chances with a persons body, the ultimate private property. Perhaps the state should make it mandatory to run a mile a day, have smokers give up cigarettes and call for increased vegetable and fruit consumption. Some people have been saved from death in certain kinds of accidents only because a seat belt was not used. As for wearing seatbelts in the car, I acknowledge that the risk of your body going through the windshield and causing damage to others is low, however the costs in rehabilitating you would be much greater versus wearing the belt that in a social medical system place such as Canada, I feel that seatbelt laws in cars are appropriate. Many Americans understand the lifesaving value of the seat belt - the national use rate was at 91.6% in 2022. Its also resentment about being told what to do by authorities. Paternalism & Its Discontents: Motorcycle Helmet Laws, Libertarian Note History. (One exception to this is Colorado, where children not properly restrained is a primary offense and brings a much larger fine.) I know people who choose not to wear seatbelts for just this reason. Court upholds seat belt law as a legitimate exercise of the - LSU Separately, Penal Code 1465.8 requires an imposition of an additional fee of $40 for court security on every conviction for a criminal offense, including a traffic offense, except parking offenses as defined in Penal Code 1463. Resistance to the life-saving devices at the time was the norm. If a driver commits a primary violation (e.g., for speeding) they may additionally be charged for not wearing a seat belt. Retrieved on 2020-01-25 from, Transportation safety in the United States, "Title 49 of the United States Code, Chapter 301, Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. Remember When Seat-belts Were Controversial? - Security Boulevard I havent tested this, and I dont know anyone who has, but here is one argument: http://www.marcstevens.net/content/view/84/33/. Some people have raised the issue of personal freedom: their right to refuse to wear seat belts. Seat Belt Laws | US Department of Transportation Those are fucked up priorities. Either the fine was too low (less than $25 dollars) or failure to wear a seat belt wasnt listed as a primary offense, meaning people could only be ticketed if they were stopped for speeding or another traffic violation. Back in the 1950s, before the seatbelt law, we didnt have to have wars to keep the population down. That sudden flow of money began in 1984, when then-Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole promised to rescind the rule that required automakers to install passive restraints by 1990 if states representing two-thirds of the U.S. population passed seat-belt laws by April 1, 1989.2 Passive restraints included air bags, which automakers bitterly opposed because, they claimed, the high expense to develop and install them would raise the price of autos way beyond what the average auto buyer would pay. Also, I have my own health insurance that covers me incase of accidents. http://www.marcstevens.net/content/view/84/33/. Opposition to the law was strongest in rural Nebraska, the Times reported then. One survey found that 86% of Americans recognised that seatbelts saved lives, while only 41% of those people actually used them (other surveys suggested the number was even lower in other countries). I think that the amount of focus is the responsibility of the driver. You become a projectile and regardless of what happens to you, anyone you hit will also be injured. This is still legal to do. @Garebo Remind me to never offer you a ride in my vehicle. This is why arguments for mandatory seat-belt use which are based on considerations of safety are completely irrelevant., In a free society, each individual must be left free to take his or her own risks, he added. Its about defending rights, no matter how small. (Williams died in 2003, not in a car accident. If they can force us to wear seat belts for our own protection, perhaps next they will tell us we have to wear our booties to keep from getting our feet wet and catching cold, Arthur Woolsey wrote in a letter to the editors of the Chicago Tribune in January 1985. We strive for accuracy and fairness. @oratio Nope. It is an insult to our freedom. 39, Blackstone I, 138). In October 1988, several hundred people, many of them motorcyclists, showed up outside the Capitol in Salem, Ore., to oppose a ballot initiative in the state. The thing most people forget in the I want my freedom issue is the rest of the equation. Cigarettes, alcohol, and fast food have VERY strong lobbyist. Its a matter of State law, and not all states require a seat belt. Edit: Im sure it would be trivial to sell people on a federal seat belt law as it might pertain to interstate commerce which is under the purview of the federal government. A case can be made for many third party effects and social costs of accidents, so this matter involves more than a mere question of the individual right of privacy. Primary enforcement laws make a difference. While courts were widely used in Yugoslavia, they were used for personal benefit not to pursue political or symbolic point-scoring. The fact that seatbelts are in the car shouldn't make it compulsory. So i judge that theres a good reason for them to make a reasonable effort to reduce the possible public-expenditure consequences of their urge to ride unfettered. I think its is another reason for the police to stop people; and it is all about the money, insurance industry/lobby. This is perhaps the most useful lesson from comparing seat belt laws and face mask adoption: the amount of protesting is immaterial and is probably influenced by how much people in a country respect authority and the legal process. Still, I dont see how seatbelts can be governed. Dave Roos is a freelance writer based in the United States and Mexico. In other countries there were fewer protests, but adherence was much lower. Should the US have seatbelt laws? I think I hate them because you have to wear them, and I think its more of a youve got to wear it, so I dont want it., I think, whether youre male or female, its a dominance thing, replies the man next to her. The additional penalty is calculated as follows: $10 state penalty required by PC 1464, $7 county penalty required by GC 76000(e), $5 court facilities construction penalty required by GC 70372(a), $5 DNA Identification Fund penalty required by GC 76104.6 and 76104.7, $2 emergency medical services penalty required by GC 76000.5. If I were to choose to drink to the point of intoxication and then get behind the wheel, I have chosen to cede my agency to an external force the alcohol which then works through me and may inflict harm upon others. A federal seat belt law would likely be unconstitutional. Go ahead levy your fine to my friend who wasnt wearing his seat belt who tried to pull a 300 pound drunk driver in his seatbelts out of his burning car that just about killed him. Maximum safety shouldnt be the law not where I want to live, anyway. Of the 30 states with primary seat belt use laws, all but California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington originally had only secondary enforcement laws. [2] Seat belt use was voluntary until New York became the first state to require vehicle occupants to wear seat belts, as of December 1, 1984[update]. Why people object to laws that save lives - BBC Future The comparison between face mask and seat belt protests is a popular one. It was a natural effect of not wearing seatbelts. Besides the millions of dollars spent by TSN, the federal government added millions more by, for example, giving grants to states for achieving a certain percentage of seat-belt use and to pay the police to enforce the seat-belt law.3 And with increased seat-belt law enforcement, ticket income increased, another source of easy revenue for the state. That got the attention of lawyers. one of the dumbest things ive ever heard. For our purposes today the phrase "law of the land" has a history which dates back to the Magna Charta in early England (Magna Charta, chpt. They are often ignored because they are unjust and this leads to a disrespect for all laws.. If you want to be stupid, fine. Like the US, the Yugoslavian seat belt law became enforceable in 1985, carried a fine equivalent to $75 (150 adjusted for inflation) and was strictly enforced. Safety just sounds nicer. But, Yugoslavians still rarely wore their seat belts. As I said before, I believe one should defend their rights, or just give them up. But I still ask, why isnt everything bad for you illegal then? There are a few reasons for this. The thing about cell phones is that your mind gets brought farther away from the immediate situation than when youre listening to something right therethis has been tested (no, cant cite it, sorry), but it certainly holds true with what experience I have, and I expect other peoples as well. In the current scenario, of course, the effects on others are more immediately obvious and far more dire. Given the massive, obvious opposition to seat-belt laws, why did state legislators suddenly change their minds and begin to pass them in 1985? For those who never wear a seat belt, the most commonly cited reason (65 percent) is that seat belts are uncomfortable. Can we cut them off from medicare and health insurance that the rest of the taxpayers pay for? So we need seatbelts, but not helmets? Yes, you can. [1] This law has since been modified to require three-point seat belts in outboard-seating positions, and finally three-point seat belts in all seating positions. If anything it should be a market driven to wear them, if you dont wear them then you pay a higher insurance rates, and as a deterrent to lying or cheating the system, a stiff penalty. HB 273-FN Final Version, Chapter 244, 1997 Session, New Hampshire. Also, driving is not considered a right, it is sort of privilege so you kind of have to follow the rules if you want to do it. According to the Associated Press, Brian ONeill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said, People have been talking about seatbelt laws and there have been attempts to pass them for well over 10 years. @robmandu Liberty- 1: the quality or state of being free: a: the power to do as one pleases b: freedom from physical restraint c: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control d: the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges e: the power of choice. if its about money, why are they still legal? No seat belt, you walk. Responsible driving is something that has to be included in the driving school, rather than banning it, and believe that will solve anything. The motion was overruled at . It should be a matter of education and at most, social pressure. Little problem if these idiots who who refuse to wear a motorcycle helmet kill themselves without harming anyone else, without destroying public or other peoples property, without incurring huge clean-up costs, without causing traffic jams, and so onbut those conditions are rarely fulfilled, and most of the time these idiots, even when they kill themselves, cost me money. Government has plenty to do beside these personal intrusions. That is a net decrease of 2,646 deaths, a 6 percent decrease over 15 years of rigid seat-belt law enforcement, with some states claiming 80 percent seat-belt use. Police officers would be excempted, as well as truck drivers, taxi drivers and security guards. @Zaku difference being that you can hang up or drop the phone. In short, it does not. The laws are just an insult and an abuse of power. Also, the very law the automakers worked for, supposedly to save peoples lives, turned on them. Even the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 added its own flavor of tyranny by ruling it was legal for a Texas police officer to arrest, handcuff, and jail a woman, and impound her car, for not buckling up herself and her children.5 Our nation, founded on freedom, certainly has come a long way from Patrick Henrys cry, Give me liberty or give me death, to Click it or ticket..

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