Seatbelt Tickets

i forgot to mention in my original post, i do always wear my seatbelt now. the ticket is crazy expensive and it is just the safer thing to do. and to top it off, i have one of those annoying vehicles that has an alarm that goes off every 10 seconds if you don't have it on. which is obnoxious if i'm moving across the parking lot at work or something.

 

Why don't they just make it so your car won't start if the seat belts not connected.. It would be combined with a sensor in the seats so if you have any passengers not buckled up it won't start either.

Full automated cars you don't even drive yourself are whats coming anyway,...Then who's liability when there's a crash?

 

Yeah, but that is not a bad thing.
Seriously, lowering the BAC helps get even more drunken fools off the road, so again in the interest of public safety.
personally I'm in favor of 0 tolerance for drinking and driving.

Stop trying to make sound as if there is some Montgomery Burns type wringing their hands over their plot to extort local law enforcement if they aren't complicit in their evil plans.
MUHAHAHAHA!

geez....some of you jokers will try to twist everything and anything into some type of conspiracy....
please....give me a break.

 

damn jag on the RT65 today doing 35mhp.... for crying out loud... this road travels 65mph in the rain .. its dry as a desert turd out there.. Move You Jagoff..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61p30ZdnXGI

 

I'm not so sure.

I absolutely ALWAYS buckle up, so this is not coming from my own lawbreaking desires.

Freedom is the right to make the wrong choice, so long as you don't do it to others. Say you have a kid who's not buckled up, that should totally be illegal - an adult choosing to engage in risky behavior is on them.

I don't agree with the "well you should anyway, so don't complain about it" angle that a lot of people seem to be taking here. Objectively maybe it's also smarter to not smoke (anything of any sort), not drink, not have sex for any reason but procreation, follow a strict diet, and many other things. That still doesn't mean that it's not okay to complain when usurpers and thugs dictate that you make what they see as the right choice.

In a perfect country, or even a reasonably fair country, I'd love a cop to pull you over for a friendly reminder that you forgot your seatbelt - but that's not the country we live in, I don't want cops smelling my car, or scrutinizing me or my possessions, because that puts me in jeopardy, because of other wrongful police practices, policies, and laws.

 

Yeahhhh....

How about we just obsolete people, all we need to do is maintain our gadgets, no reason to have fun or autonomy if we can live forever in hamster balls.

Or how about that's as dangerous as any other half-baked system that doesn't let you use your car because of the specific circumstances not meeting some sort of safety criteria.

Like those new trucks that won't start if they're out of urea.... I live in the fucking desert, you could die over your car not thinking you're safe enough - GM can't get an ignition switch right, and I'm supposed to have extra switches that stop my car, because someone who never actually depends on their car in any serious way decided that they need to make SURE that I'm TOTALLY safe, at ALL costs?

I'm all for making things better - I'm not all for simply deferring to technology as always better and smarter than people, and always more trustworthy than I am. I do the shit I do for a reason, and buckling is part of what I do, if I choose not to (or it doesn't detect that I am), there's a damn good reason for it - and there's a damn good reason I'm starting my car, and it needs to do what I tell it.

This shit's part of why I just bought a car older than I am - it's got very reliable simple efficient computer engine management, a sensor-free limp mode with it's own full backup circuitry, and no senselessly complex bullshit to make my life harder and more dangerous by setting ultimatums for me to drive it.

You're right, that will totally happen. And it's presumptuous, insulting, dangerous, and generally asinine. I'm not willing to give up my autonomy and safety just because some people will choose to be less safe.

 

I buy stuff to serve me, not supervise me.

 

I'm just answering a question - but I never agreed with the overboard all out focus on seat belt tickets - we would literally get yelled at if we wrote a warning

 

I guess you could argue that the seat belt laws are just a revenue scheme.

You could also say that the reason why they are strict about enforcement is because seat belts save lives, and maybe most police are lax about enforcement unless they've got pressure on them.

 

The law may have some good intent associated with it, but when it's given primary offense status it gives police yet another 'tool' to erode privacy and skirt the presumption of innocence. Just like all they have to do is say they smell pot and can get a search warrant and dogs. So thats when they see that copy of Mother Jones on the back seat and bam! On the list you go! See what I'm driving at here?


Wadda ya think Rat? LOL

 

It also makes money for the state, but it saves lives and as I understand it, it also saves money. It seems people flying through windshields and then die on the concrete etc. are an expensive burden

 

When I started policing in 1988, a seat belt ticket was $25.00 in MD and it stayed $25.00 until just two years ago when it became $50.00. You'd think they would raise it higher if it was for revenue purposes. The aggressive enforcement worked well early on because a lot of people didn't wear them. Now I think we've reached saturation and we've done well to get a majority of people to wear them. I don't agree with using night vision goggles like some places do to catch someone without a belt on at 3AM.

 

I prefer to fly under the radar...so wearing my seat belt helps that, as well as not speeding.

Everyone will have a different opinion on this....would love to hear an opinion from a first responder about seat belt wear.

 

It doesn't just affect you. If you get in an accident, and fly out the window, you'll probably land on the road. Someone will have to swerve out of the way and possibly cause another accident. If that does n't happen, and you're just injured off the side of the road, the community will pay to have an ambulance haul you off to the hospital. At the very least even if you die, your corpse would be a health concern.

Nonsense argument.

 

Nonsense argument? So what the fuck happens to these morons on the motorcycles? They're the biggest safety threat on the fucking road, yet some of you use the most outlandish scenarios of people flying out windows to justify your silly argument that seat belt laws are good and there to protect you. Of course people go flying through windows all the time when they're not wearing their seat belts, but it's really quite a non-issue in terms of the threat it poses to other people on the road when someone does not wear their seat belt.

 

This is why I don't drive. Period. I lost my sister in a horrible car wreck way back in 1990. That's why I think cars are a mistake. Most people will hop in a car just to go to a store a mile or two away. So why not just walk? People did this on a regular basis before cars became so common. As somebody that walks everywhere I go, I actually resent all the stupid cross walks and stop signs I have to endlessly wait for before I can cross a street.

BTW, I've come way close to being hit by a car (more than once) when I've legally attempted to cross a street (on foot) in town, etc. I'm always totally careful about making sure the light is green, before I attempt to cross a street. Hell, cops will bust you for jaywalking, if you try to cross the street a mere second before the light turns green. I shudder at the thought of what they might do when you actually are on the road in a vehicle. I refuse to go there. If nothing else, all my walking has saved me a ton of money on so-called health clubs. Not to mention the money I am saving on gas, etc. Just walk. There's more pride than shame in that

 

That wouldn't work because the car can't tell what exactly is on the seat. My car has sensors in the seats to detect weight. So if I set something with a bit of weight to it on the front seat, the car detects it and notifies me that it is shutting off the airbags for that seat (because it thinks it may be a child and airbags can injure children). But the car will make a beeping noise until the drivers seat belt is clicked in.

I've always worn my seat belt. One of our cars is one of the safest cars you can buy. They come standard with a full "roll cage" and there are air bags on damn near every major surface which can basically turn the inside of the car into one big cushion to protect passengers (highest safety rating in it's class...9 out of 10) but even all of that may not be enough if I'm not wearing my seat belt. There was a 17 yr old girl who rolled one of these cars at 75 mph...wearing her seat belt...and walked away with almost not even a scratch on her. I bet her parents were pissed about the car though.

I usually don't wear my seat belt at work though. But that's a little different because you're usually in a large commercial vehicle on gravel roads or rural highways with almost no traffic, usually not driving very fast and we're getting in and out of the truck often. I'll put the sweat belt on if I come into town or get on a busier highway.

 

Morons? So every person that rides a motorcycle is a moron? lol

They are not the biggest safety threat on the road...that would be teens and texting, then assholes who like to fuck with people on motorcycles.