Joe said:
Actually, I'm against laws that are there to "protect myself." IMO, the government has no place to tell me that I should wear a seat-belt "for my own safety."
Hello Joe,
Normally I would not go so far off topic but because this thread was toast long ago and because I have specific knowledge concerning the seatbelt thing, well, (deep breath) here goes nothing...
I am a volunteer firefighter and EMS responder in my little burg. In the last year, half of the scenes that I have responded to are MVA’s (motor vehicle accidents). This adds up to about sixty MVAs in the last 12 months.
I respect and can empathize with your “law infringing on informed personal choice†argument, but not in the case concerning seatbelts. To me, seatbelt laws to me are no different than most of the other traffic laws that we follow (stop signs, yields, right-of-way, center stripes, etc.) because they reach beyond personal choice into the realm of societal betterment. I can but provide the following real example:
Last summer a mother traveling with four children, ages 8-months, 4 years, 7 years, and 9 years loses control of her vehicle on some gravel spilled upon one of our highways. The car skids with the rear of the vehicle moving away from the driver’s side. When she hit dry pavement again, the deceleration sent her across the vehicle to the passenger side of the front seat (no belt to hold her in the driver’s position). Driverless, the car went into an oncoming lane and was hit head-on by a pickup driven by a father with his 9 and 14 year old sons as passengers. The pickup was in turn, rear-ended by another vehicle with two passengers. This vehicle caromed off of the pickup and rolled along the longitudinal axis twice before coming to rest.
Out of the ten people involved, two where wearing seatbelts (the folks in the third vehicle that rolled), the infant was in a car-seat but the seat was not restrained. This scene had 22 responders, two helicopters, 4 ambulances, and an unknown number of law enforcement personnel (I did not have time to count).
All four children ended up on the highway. I am a father of young children myself and I can tell you that my hands are shaking just trying to type these words.
The four year old died on scene, the 7 and 9 year old both sustained life altering injuries. The infant was saved by the car seat even though the seat was ejected from the vehicle. The mother was crushed by the dashboard and sustained severe chest and head trauma. She survived but is unable to care for her surviving children.
The passengers in the pickup all sustained broken bones and lacerations but will recover. The belted passengers in the third vehicle that rolled multiple times were treated and released with minor injuries.
All three vehicle passenger compartments where intact. This is a clear sign that the injuries sustained by the unrestrained passengers would have been much less serious if they had been wearing seat belts.
If you have read this far, you may be saying: “Yes, Yes… I understand that seatbelts improve safety. What does this have to do with society limiting my choice?â€
Here are some outcomes from this incident that had an effect upon society:
3 children are now in foster care, two of whom will need extensive re-habilitation with most costs being bourn by society at large (taxes).
The mother will need daily nursing care for the remainder of her days via public assistance.
Damage to infrastructure (power lines, roads, interruption of commerce) costs.
Societal cost of having 22 EMS/Fire responders and associated gear tied up at one scene and not able to respond to other events.
Costs of mandatory counseling for those 22 responders (mostly because children where involved). I can tell you that the he-man tough guy/girl fire/ems/police persona goes right out the window when you see children lying on the concrete in pools of their own blood.
Many of the injuries happened largely because two parents had not established a habit of clipping a little metal tab into a buckle in two separate cases (parent in pickup and parent in car). Not requiring adults to buckle-up has a huge effect upon child safety and children’s own safety habits.
I have more of these stories if you need more evidence.
Joe, I do agree with some of your infringement sentiments. However, I feel that the seat-belt, cell-phone, topics are a poor choice of battlefield.
Regards, Chris.
Not speaking for beyond3d
