Is a law requiring you to wear a seat belt, a violation of our civil rights?
I understand that wearing my seat belt is a good safety precaution and I do wear mine. However, it bugs me that the government can legally require to me to wear a seat belt. If I don't wear a seat belt and have an accident, aren't I only causing harm to myself? Shouldn't our laws be in place so our actions don't harm another person? Does the government feel they have to protect me from myself? If so, what's next - a law requiring us to eat our vegetables? It could be argued that people who have poor diets incurred more health care costs and that effectives everyone through increased health insurance premiums.
I'm a patriot. I am proud to be a citizen of the U.S. I vote. My father was a high ranking police officer for a large metropolitian city but the seat belt law just bugs me!
Answers:
I don't know what to tell you. It's law, it's not unconstitutional, and it will continue to be enforced.
It's because of the ways laws work in the US.
States have nearly unlimited authority to enact any laws relating to public safety -- that's the source of most state criminal laws, and things like speed limits and seat-belt laws.
The problem is the standard of review -- states (and federal govt in very limited areas) can pass any law as long as it is vaguely related in some way to anything the state might think might be important. The legal term is "rational basis" review.
I completely agree with you. I don't think the govt (state or federal) should be allowed to pass laws just to protect us from our own choices. But, sadly, that's not the way laws currently work in the US.
Laws though sometimes dumb are there for a reason.
What would happen if you got in a car wreck and became a vegetable?
who would take care of your bills?
what happens after your insurance says, "we wont pays anymore bills?"
guess who picks up the tab.the Government. So I think the government has a right to make this law. specially since I the tax payer will have to pay for your medical bills if you are not insured or if your insurance company does not and you qualify for medicare/medicaid.
There are some fools out there that would say it is the governments job to protect us.and then try to sue the government for not doing enough.
Look at the fools in New Orleans who were told to get out but didn't. Now they want Federal help?
Look at the fools in the floods whose house and everything was washed away, now they want Federal help?
I'm all about getting Federal help when needed. So when there is a law that benefits all, I will surely accept it.
hope this helps.
Anne
The point is - I think that when you don't wear your seat belt you are or can be hurting others
If there was a law that shielded folks from lawsuits from the non-seatbelt wearers then I would be all with you!
Like motorcycle helmets - If a motorcyclist could not sue someone when he was not wearing a helmet then I would say in fact there was a true assumption of risk
You can harm others by not wearing a seat belt. In an abrupt maneuver you might slide out of your seat. Unable to control your car and kill someone.
Also the government is helping keep everyone else's car insurance premiums lower by reducing the amount of money involved in a car accident. This keeps people out of the hospital or at least out of the hospital sooner.
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Yep say for instance you get into a car accident, Then you don't wear your seat belt and you are slammed through your windshield and land on the road in front of you. A car coming towards you swears to not hit you and rams him self into the barrier on the side of the road.
Now if you had your seat belt on, the car coming toward you wouldn't have swerved and the driver would be ok.
Okay I am sure this hardly ever happens. But the next thing you will be asking is why do children have to wear selt belts or have car seats because it is the law. Is that agaisnt their civil rights?
Laws are laws for reasons and sometimes we don't agree with them but we do have to follow them or face the consquences.
Amen sister. I dont know if one could make a legal case of it or not. But it certianly does violate common sense. There are countless things in the world that are "dangerous" or bad for us. I too wear my seatbelt and I too am offended that it is a law. This also applies to the helmet laws in some states. Law enforcement has much better things to do than pester people who are not wearing a belt yet harming no one.
Laws should prevent people from doing something that harms other people. If someone wants to risk harming only themselves.. go for it. Knock your self out. Pun intended. But Big Brother likes its Nanny State. As Thomas Jefferson said"...a little anarchy now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
I used to agree with you. However, my great uncle made a great point, If something happened and I somehow lost control of my car, with no seat belt and was thrown all the way across my car, there is no chance of me recovering control of my car, yet if i have my seat belt on I may have a chance, even if it is just slamming on the breaks to get my car to stop. I ended up in a really bad wreck last yr, I was rear ended by a drunk driver, and though I don't remember any of it I somehow stopped my car from hitting a vineyard, telephone poll and a another little pole on the side of the road. I believe if I had not had my seat belt on my daughter and I would not be as good as we are today. So this is not just to keep people from hurting themselves, but from hurting each other even unintetionally.
You mention the fact that health care cost rise when people don't take care of their health. This is the same thing. When you are involved in an accident you do not come out of it unscathed. If you wear a seat belt chances are you are still going to be injured but not dead. Without one the chances that you could die are a given.
How about having some thought and concern for the emergency people who attend road accidents. Don't you think seeing somebody who has had their face removed by the going through a windscreen might make it hard for them to sleep at night when they know that if the idiot had been wearing a seat belt all they might be concerned with is a broken collar bone.
Some laws are made to protect fools from themselves and this is one of them.
I saw a documentary the other day of accidents on an American freeway. They were horrific and at high speed and yet nobody was seriously injured because all were wearing seat belt. Says it all doesn't it?
It's just small fine. They're not gona lock you up. They're not gona do under cover sting operation on you if you don't buckle up. Not too much to ask.
What about requirement that you have to get driver's license? What about liquor law? Age? Too old? Too young? Smoking age? What about car insurance requirement? Who to tell me if I'm rich or poor enough to drive?
They don't pass laws to make everybody happy. No gov is going to make everybody happy. I guess unless you buy your own country and become a dictator.
And driving is considered privilege and not fundamental human rights.
when people complain about such trivial things i just shake my head. if you are such a patriot just live with it. they are doing it to save not just your life but that of passengers and the innocent that get hit by stupid asses who don't wear it and crash in to them.
to those who don't like wearing seatbelts... go ride a bicycle or moped
You know, it bugged me too, and I hated putting that belt on. I was use to not using it, and I felt uncomfortable, belt rub to close to my chest etc... I found all kinds of excuses. Then one day on the way to work, I was delayed for over four hours in a traffic pile up. many people got out of their cars and walked down the side of the road to see what the problem was. What it was, a family. Dad, Mom and three children from less than a year old to about six yrs old. Apparently for some reason cars begin to stop, and there was a chain reaction, cars hitting each other in the rear end. One car in mind, I will never forget! Two older children that was in the back seat, were partly on the hood, ground and blood ,skin and body parts were hung in the wind shield. The smallest child, nearly still in mothers lap, was stuck together with his mother, who also was partially buried in the windshield, and Dad, protected by the stirring wheel, I guess, only had half his head cut off. I will never forget this for as long as I live, that scene. So , if a seat belt will secure me and my family well enough to keep us from flying through a wind shield, then so be it. I will buckle up! No matter who made that law.
There, you said it yourself. You said that "people who have poor diets incurred more health care costs and that effectives everyone through increased health insurance premiums." Similarly, people who get hurt more seriously when they get into accidents incure more medical bills and car repair bills, which the insurance company has to pay. This causes higher auto insurance premiums for everyone.
You will be causing harm to yourself, you're right. As well as suing the car manufacturers' as*ses off for your injuries. That is exactly why in order to protect manufacturers, insurance companies, and millions of taxpayers from your "rights" to everything the law requires you to wear a seat belt.
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