The state of New Hampshire actually has some legislators with a little bit of common sense and respect for individual liberty. New Hampshire is the last state in the Union without a mandatory seatbelt law. The proponents of the bill are saying it will save lives, whereas the opponents are saying “Hey, no one is going to start wearing their seatbelt all the time just because of the bill.” The best opinion on the issue goes to the opponents.
Ever since seatbelt laws came into effect in my state it has annoyed me. First, the state spends extraordainary amounts of money putting commercials on local televisions channels telling us all to buckle up or else we’ll die (One commercial literally has a person dying because he didn’t wear his seat belt). Second, why should I get pulled over just because I am not wearing my seatbelt? It is fundamentally against liberty in every form and fashion.
The purpose of government according to the classic liberals of the nineteenth century was to keep individual A from interfering with the rights of individual B. If A causes harm to B, then government must step in. Laws are created to keep A from harming B, and everyone can get on with their life peacefully. The seatbelt laws do not fit in to that equation. They are to keep A from interfering with his own rights. What justification is there to keep me from harming myself? None that I can see.
Hurting myself only hurts myself. If I wreck my car, fly out of the windshield, hit a tree and die it is my fault. I most likely wouldn’t have worn a seatbelt anyway regardless of the law, so you’re only penalizing people who don’t get in wrecks and don’t wear their seatbelts. Sometimes wearing a seatbelt could be beneficial. What if you flew out of the car’s windshield into the ditch nearby, but your car caught on fire and blew up? What if it was crushed in where you would have been trapped? Wearing a seatbelt should be a personal decision and not a societal\governmental one.
Nanny government doesn’t help people at all, it only brings them to dependence on other people and weakens society as a whole.
Filed under: Philosophy, Politics
Accidents are just that, accidental. You have no choice in how it would come out. Yes, a seatbelt may hinder your safety but statistically your chances are far better with a seatbelt over anything else. Time and again it is proven that seatbelts save lives.
Your arguments against seatbelts are far fetched and not well thought out. As far as your car blowing up, while a dramatic effect in movies made with Hollywood physics… the chance of it happening to you are very slim as cars don’t blow up very often in the real world. And unlike Hollywood, being a few feet from a huge explosion would usually kill or maim you anyways. And as far as being crushed, this is more likely to happen when you are thrown partially out of the cab. A seat belt keeps you in the most protected place you can be during an auto accident.
Here’s a more likely scenario you failed to consider and clearly sums up why the state has a stake in you wearing your seatbelt. What if you get in an accident, fly through the windshield, suffer trauma to your brain and spend the next twenty to forty years as a low functioning ward of the state? Would you be a burden on society and weaken it as a whole? Would you, or your family get upset if the “Nanny State” was dismantled and the state decided to ignore your disability and no longer provide you with a CNA to clean your colostomy bag?
I wear a seat belt every time I am in a motor vehicle because I know accidents happen especially when you consider half of the people on the road have below average intelligence. Should I have to pay higher insurance costs just because of all the morons who don’t care about safety? Why should my tax burden be higher just to take care of all these idiots who become wards of the state due to stupid injuries that could have been avoided?
Is your life that devoid of purpose that you are willing to throw it away because you are too pigheaded to use proper saftey procedures?
Why do I have to worry about getting killed by an airbag now that they are standard on every car just because Ralph Nader thought the common person was too stupid to wear a seat belt so another less effective method had to mandated?
While your term “Nanny State” is cute, it is just double speak to justify you acting like a spoilt baby. We are all part of a society, bonded by a social contract, to paraphrase Hobbes, and without it, our lives would be nasty brutish and short.
Without your seat belt you might find yourself relying completely on a real nanny state, a state run longterm care home. You should visit one to see where you might end up. You could find yourself a drooling burden on people who take their civic responsibilities seriously. Please use your intelligence for something better or go off and live without society with no roads, cars, internet, electricity or nannies. I’d wager you’d be worm meat or back in town in less than a year.
Another point I’d like to make that people frequently forget. Seatbelts keep you in the seat when your body alone isn’t strong enough to do so. If you don’t believe seatbelts can help you in anyway, sign up for a performance driving school at the local race track. Out here in Mass, you can sign up for one through your local car enthusiast car (BMWCCA, Corvette Owner’s club, etc.). When you get out on the track and have to break hard and then take a hard turn, you will have a very very very hard time staying in your seat and still keep in control of the car. Even wearing your seatbelt (a regular 3 point one), you will move around quite a bit. So let me pose the following scenario…you are driving your car and you have to make a high speed avoidance maneuver. Would you rather be thrown from your seat and lose control of the car and potentially be injured or die (AND injure others b/c you lost control) or would you rather wear the damn seatbelt and have a chance of keeping control and surviving.
I strongly feel that for every scenario you can come up with why it is a good idea not to wear a seatbelt, I can come up with another off the wall scenario where it will save your life or others.
Also, another quick thought. If you are riding in a car with others and you are the only one not wearing a seatbelt..you are a literally a missile in the car. I had a friend who refused to wear his seatbelt and he would frequently lose his grip and slide across the seat and hit me hard when we went around a corner.
I’m vaguely libertarian, so I think everybody should have as much individual liberty as possible, but not wearing a seatbelt is not individual liberty. It affects too many people. We don’t live in a vaccuum.
Please wear a seatbelt.
-Dave
Thank you for asking ” please wear a seat belt “. There are many good reasons for safety equipment of all designes many of them I use faithfully every day. Many years ago , a friend of mine was involved in an accident in which her car overturned down an embankment and landed upside down in a shallow river. My friend drowned as she couldn’t extracate herself from the seatbelt she was wearing. I and others really miss Her . I understand there has been other instances of this happening.
However, my view in this is the question of compulsory use . One of Winston Churchill’s quotes that stuck with me is ” IF YOU HAVE 10,000 REGULATIONS , PEOPLE WILL LOSE ALL RESPECT FOR THE LAW ” . Where does it all end ? Myself , I watch you jogging alongside a busy thoroughfare inhaling gallons of carcinogen laced air and you could possibly end up with a debilitating illness and be a ward of the state siphoning off funds needed elsewhere. could
that justify me spearheading a drive to legislate that all joggers are required to wear filtring devices from now on ?
The list can go on. Legislating people to do the prudent and right thing has never or will it ever accomplish much. Correct Parenting and leadership is one of the solutions , not endless regulation.
Herman
i agree to the full about what you said!!!!!!!!!! why in the world is it a law???????? it is absurd so g2g
also y should cops care if u wear it or not?? its ur life not theres that ur putting on the line………… if we dont wont to we aint got!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! International Harvester
hey bill u r dumb
I can ride a motorcycle without a helmet, but I have to wear a seatbelt in an enclosed metal framed car. Our government wants your money and insurance companies jave lobbyists working to get these rediculous laws passed. Its personal responsibility, not the feds.
The seatbelt law is another way for the government to show you that they have complete control over your life
Just got a seat belt ticket no more than an hour ago, usually always wear one but the pig cockroach cop says ” i don’t give warning so here ya go”
In short… ass whole cops ass whole government hope they all have amazingly horrible things happen to them in the hopefully short lives.
Total complete BS, I could be more articulate in my response but this is like getting a ticket for drinking alcohol in my own home, because I could get clumsy and stub my toe, total BS.
It’s about keeping your sorry ass out of my ass pocket when you damage yourself so much that I have to support your sorry ass kids and fat ass wife with social security payments funded by the ridiculously assinine FICA..
I always thought this was to help insurance companies keep costs lower(incl FICA).
Insurance costs are the least of it.
Insurance companies WANT costs to be higher. When I was a corporate salary drudge, Aetna was managing the company health insurance for cost plus 40%.
Think of that – an unquestioned cost plus 40%.
The incentive for closing their eyes to fraud is obvious. So is the incentive for inverse cost control.
You wonder how our healthcare costs got so out of control? I bet this system was a big part of it.
Do you remember how mush stink was raised when the defense departments cost plus 10% contracts were investigated?
Cost plus 40%.
Incredible.
What people say about the safety of seatbelts is true. Yes, seatbelts do increase safety and should be worn, but not FORCED to be worn. If a person doesn’t want to wear a seatbelt, one shouldn’t be FORCED to. If that person wants to jeopardize his own safety, let him be. He isn’t inflicting on any one else’s safety of rights, the only one he is hurting is himself. Why should the government inflict punishment on someone that is doing NO WRONG to the community? I find these seatbelts laws stupid and absurd.
Do not judge me and call me selfish, because I always wear a seatbelt. I wouldn’t be a victim of this law. However, I feel the unjustness of this law is abnormally large. I believe if a person doesn’t want to wear a seatbelt and be safe, let him be. Give him a higher chance to die. Don’t punish him for not being safe, despite the fact he ISN’T HARMING ANYONE ELSE. People need to understand this. The poster of this, Lance, is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
I recently got a ticket for wearing my seat belt under my armpit instead of over my shoulder. If I was the cop I would have felt like a complete tool having my time wasted on crap like that when I could have been doing some real good for the community stopping people who are actually *endangering others*.
The U.S. is [supposed to be] a democracy. If I want to be a rebel and wear my seat belt improperly, they’ve got no business telling me I can’t. It should be a freedom on the same level as choosing to walk a tightrope, stand near a cliff, or go skydiving. I wasn’t endangering anyone but myself. That was my choice, and hell, if I got in a crash and died I’d just have to deal with it. At least I would have died with my personal freedoms and dignity intact.
When a democracy starts to regulate simple freedoms, it becomes something else entirely…
I couldn’t care less about the $20 ticket and 2 hour Seat Belt Etiquette class. It’s the steadily increasing stupidity of those in power that I’m worried about.
What’s next? Always wear shoes outside because there could be glass on the ground? Always wear bug spray during mosquito season because you could catch some disease?
Our government is a joke in this regard and the rest of the world is laughing.
Great post. I had this argument repeatedly back in the 1980s when Florida enacted their seatbelt laws. Seatbelt laws infringe on personal liberty without any benefit to the safety of others. It is classic liberal thought, people are too dumb to act in their own best interest, therefore the elite must protect them. I agree with you, the idiot who refuses to wear the seatbelt deserves to be removed from the gene pool and thereby the voting pool – since we can bet who they’d be voting for. My Dad – a lib – argued it’s mostly young drivers who are inherently stupid and thus we are protecting them. When I was a teen I routinely was that dumb kid. I had 1 accident that hurled me into the windshield and I have not forgotten the seatbelt since.
If any argument can be made for seatbelts it is that by preventing serious injuries we are saving associated healthcare, insurance, public assistance, and legal costs. I can buy that argument better.
Oh, one last thing, seatbelt laws do increase the number of people wearing them. Back around 1986 a study (I think UF or USF) showed something like a 20% increase within 2 years of enacting the law in Florida. I’m still against seatbelt laws based on personal liberty.
The reason legislators pass seat belt laws is because the private insurance industry and a car company can possibly hire them in the future for at least a six figure contract if not more!
Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota,who is a conservative governor, recently signed the seat belt law bill and he is no liberal!
No wonder unreported crime goes up in this country!
theses seat belt law are pure bull shit, they are just so the state can make money off of you. i live in south carolina and i see cops go out of there way to stop you for a seal belt not being on. hell the stupid ass cops just look for it. i once had a cop turn around in the middle of the street to come in behind me one day i didn’t have my seat belt on. the stupid ass motherfucker all most hit a car comeing in the other direction to start with. as he was coming to write me a ticker he passed t crack dealers on the side of the road and a prositute sell pussy on the conner. to just write me a ticket for a seat belt not being on. no what the fuck do you think the law is about. bull shit
I agree completely with your article Lance.
I totally agree with you on the issue. Other motor vehicle laws such as DWI, reckless driving, driving at night without headlights, ect., are in place to protect other motorist. How does this seatbelt law do that? It doesn’t. Sure, seatbelts probably could save some injuries in most cases, but some cases it could cause grater harm. Does my not wearing the seat belt effect anyone else? NO. There are people that argue that is would save taxpayers money for people being taken to the hospital after being in a wreck. How so? When my wife was in an accident, she was taken to the hospital by ambulance, where she was treated and released. I saw the bill for the permedics, fees for the police to controll traffic,and the bill for the ambulance. Thank God we had insurance to pay for it. I also think that law enforcement officers should be focused on bigger crimes like drugs and places be robbed.
I think the general theme of this article was not to debate weather or not to wear a seat belt. Every one should wear their seat belt because it is “there” and its the smart thing to do. The article addresses the states right to make me pay because I did not wear my seat belt. I think that making someone pay 150 bucks because they forgot to put on their seat belt is absurd and unjust.
i hate the seatbelt law. it infringes on personal liberty rights.
I’ve read over many of the coments posted on this debate. Some pro seatbelts and some anti seatbelts. So here is my 2 cents.
Realistcly, seat belts do save more lives than endanger them. However, It does infringe on all of our liberal rights to be force wear them. It should be the choice of every driver to wear a seatbelt or not. I wear a seatbelt about 99 percent of the time im in a car. I know staticticly im safer wearing one. But I also have lost two dear friends in car accidents due to the fact that they had seatbelts on. I have never lost any friend or loved one who was not wearing a seat belt. Both of my friends died becase they were not able to be ejected from the car. Infact, when one of them died there were actually two of my friends in the car. The one without a seatbelt was ejected and suffered severe injuries but recovered well. The other with the seatbelt was thrown halfway out of the vehicle when his belt caught him and the vehicle rolled over his head.
I know the odds of my situation and finding someone elses whose are similar are 100 to 1. Lets face it, I might be the only exeption. So let me present the case from a more realistic angle. I was given a seatbelt ticket once while I was visiting the state of washington. I was coming home from a friends birthday party five blocks from where I was staying. I was in the passenger seat of the van and had unbuckled myself to grab a fallen bottle for a screaming baby (im not making this up). Being now one block from the appartments and on calm backroads I didnt even think to put my belt back on. A police officer heading the opposite direction flipped around and gave my friend and me tickets. I tried explaning that we were visiting and did not know that in the state of Washington not wearing a seatbelt was a primary offence. I thought it was only a secondary offence and that we could not get pulled over for simply not wearing a seatbelt, because thats how it is in the state I live in. He said “Its a primary offence in the state of Washington. Any other questions?” And I was delt a 125 dollar ticket. It was pointless to fight it because the judge and the state only wanted their money, not justice.
BOTTOM LINE, every state is making a killing on fining good, honest, hardworking, law abiding people. It is the choice of every american how he chooses to ride in his own vehicle. Its also the our right to choose what kind of car we drive, and its color, or what radio station we like! All this nonsence is just a way for the goverment to dip their hand in our pockets and try to control every aspect of our day to day life. It is LEGALISED CRIME…….
Listen I think it up to the person! if want to wear a seat belt and if you don’t..It’s My or there choice..Drinking and Smoking and doing drugs are far worst for you..But it’s that person choice Legal or illegally to do that behavior..I Rather not think that next it will be both hands on the steering wheel, or not drinking a cup of coffee..or not changing a radio station will be next! they are the most likely the reason for accidents anyway..”Eyes off the road! like cell phone are dangerous ..Speeding, Reckless, Inattention, Negligent, DUI..Is what I want my money for law enforcement to be paying attention too! What are air bags for!
This comment was brought to you by my seat belt, which saved my life one day, long ago. Some see the belt as a bane. I see it differently. If I had not been wearing mine on that day, I’d have nothing to say about it – - I’d be dead.
Some would argue that those who do not understand the importance of safety devices are ultimately helping to improve the viability of our gene pool. I have to agree.
One famous critic of safety devices, Dale Earnhardt, was one of those who just didn’t get it.
Next, I want a law on the books to jail people blowing through a school join while talking on the phone – with seat belt on or not.
Who gives a rip if you were saved by your sealtbelt or not, Ben? That has no bearing on the issue at stake: the liberty of choosing whether or not to wear your seatbelt.
i recently recieved a seatbelt ticket. i may loose but im fighting first! I will be going to court on the matter. regardless of the safety issue – procecuter says that its insurance company costs that are the issue and i think hes backing me (thought with a chuckle and disbelief). i believe it to be my personal choice. I would appreciate any input. I live in minnesota and i believe it to be against my 9th amendment right. please send feedback people.
Ben you f ing d bag no one cares if you almost died. I almost died because i got f ed up and ran in front of a car but did i get a ticket? no faggot. eat a d. way to disgrace dale earnhardt fag. he died with his dignity and honor and he would say screw off prick
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