Is it fair?

soulguy85

I don't like it either and I think the state government should butt-out. However, I think they're under a lot of pressure and controlled by the insurance companies. I use to be a school bus driver and I totally concur with your sentiment. My main reason for wanting mandatory seat belts on a school bus is simply to keep the kids in their seats at all times.

But here's one they haven't been able to have their way with yet, at least in the state where I live. Motorcyclist still are not forced to wear helmets. Interesting.

Cassie

I'm gonna go on personal experience with this one. I hit an embankment going about 60 and I was not wearing a seat belt I was in ICU for 6 days and almost died .... I chose to wear my seat belt now

Rikitikitavi

look at these statistics and you tell me

Three of five people killed in vehicle accidents would have survived their injuries had they been wearing their seat belts. (Source: NHTSA)
Seat belts save an estimated 9,500 lives in the United States each year. (Source: NHTSA)
Every 12 seconds, someone is killed in a traffic accident. (Source: NHTSA)

ccgriffin1972

Well I had a friend die in a car fire from being hit by a drunk driver on the passenger side.

His seatbelt was pinched in between the drivers and passengers seats.

Even the police said if he was not wearing it he would be alive today.

He was a off duty cop, and this happened way before the seatbelt laws.

atzu_87

in america they used to (or maybe still do in some states) not care about seat belts...
car manufacturers wanted their customers to... you know, not die, and invented air bags and crumple zones...
but a seatbelt is your best bet, adding airbags and crumple zones makes it safer, but seatbelts are the supreme rulers of car safety (with the exception of skilled driving lol)...
australia has many such laws which are "keep safe or pay you fine", "excerise your rights or pay the fine"...
it's a disincentive to even risk a situation nobody wants, and reduces the amount of road fatalies significantly...
so yes it's fair, next time try to value your own existance please =( I don't know you but any life is worth the 2seconds it takes to put on a seatbelt...

frank m

Just think of it as the government putting an insurance policy on you to protect the taxes you will pay if you don't get killed.

(cici)

it is

Blazer

my school bus has seat belts and you wear them if you want to.

tott1

the seat belt law is to protect your life from your own choices wich is not the states right to do

andrewb621

I dont think its fair because if u get into an accident, the only person u are hurting by not wearing the seat belt is yourself. i think it should be a choice.

seat belts save lives
life is not fair

Loves Weezy

I understand what you are saying. However, is it fair that the taxpayers have to pay hospital bills for an uninsured person who becomes injured because of not wearing his seatbelt? It's all a question of who we should be fair to. The argument could be made that natural selection is taking place here by weeding those out silly enough not to wear a seatbelt. Seatbelts save lives! Why can't we just wear them?

oklatom

Yes, it is fair, especially since seat belt use actually increases the chances of injury on a school bus, but reduces it drastically in an automobile.

http://www.safety-council.org/info/traffic/schbusbelt.htm
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/05/07/school.bus.seatbelts/index.html just to cite a few studies.

bostonianinmo

I know for a fact that seat belts save lives. I'm living proof, three times over!

I really have a problem with these idiots who think that they have a right to drive without them. They think that it's a victimless crime. When you get yourself mangled up in an accident without a seat belt or get killed and leave a family behind, my tax and insurance dollars are needlessly spent to pay for YOUR stupidity. Think otherwise? Please read on!

The most horrific accident I ever saw was one that I was involved in about 17 years ago in TX. I was driving along a rural Farm Road at 55 MPH. A pickup coming in the opposite direction suddenly swerved to avoid a dog that had run into the road. The driver of the pickup wasn't wearing his seat belt and slid over to the passenger side, completely losing control of his truck.

His truck came across the road and struck me at about a 30 degree angle, head on. This forced my car off towards the right side of the road and caused me to roll 5 or 6 times. The impact was so severe that most of the front of my car was torn away, the engine and transmission assembly landed nearly 100 yards from the car.

I was knocked unconscious briefly. When I came to, my car was upright -- sort of. I had bruises all over, numerous minor cuts and scratches from flying glass, and a broken collar bone. Looking at the destruction all around, the pain from that broken collar bone was the sweetest sensation of my life as it told me that I was ALIVE!

It took me a few seconds to get my wits about me but I released the seat belt and crawled from the wreckage of my car. As I looked around I couldn't believe that I had survived. My car was barely recognizable as a car, it was little more than a pile of rubble.

Looking back up the road, the road and shoulder were covered with pieces of what had once been a Chevy pickup. I only knew what it had been from that flashback image in my mind just prior to the impact. The truck had spun off the opposite side of the road and impacted a boulder on the side of the road and had tumbled who knows how many times. About 50 yards beyond the boulder was a pile of meat that must have been the driver of the truck. It was barely recognizable as human; only the blood-soaked remnants of clothing gave that much of a clue. Obviously he had been thrown from the truck which then rolled over him as it continued on its path of total obliteration.

It took about 15 minutes for the police to arrive on the scene. When they saw what was left of my car, they started looking for another body and were somewhat shocked to see that I had survived and had walked away from the scene. They thought that I was an onlooker from one of the several vehicles that had stopped at the scene despite the scratches on my face and some blood from a cut on my scalp.

The driver of the truck left a wife and 4 children behind. Of course, he had no life insurance. The last I'd heard, his wife and kids were on welfare as she had no marketable skills and had depended upon him totally for her support. In the accident investigation that followed, she revealed that he never wore a seatbelt. He felt that they were for sissies and it was his God-given right to drive without one.

Had the driver of that pickup been wearing a seat belt, there's every reason to believe that the accident would not have happened at all. He would probably been able to maintain control of his truck and avoided hitting me completely. Even if he had struck me, there was enough of the cab intact after the accident that he very well may have survived and maybe have even walked away from the scene as I did. As it stands, a wife is left without her husband, 4 kids are without a Dad, and the good taxpayers of TX are paying for their support.

A "victimless" crime? I think not!

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: