Read this.


then read this

see also: definition of irony.

I agree with him that there should be no seatbelt law, but that does not mean I won't wear my seatbelt to protest it.

You've got to be kidding me.

In a morbid sense, that's awesome.

I'm going to wear my seatbelt whether or not there's a law about it. That said, I agree that the law is an affront to liberty. If he wants to take risks, that's up to him and not the government.

thats a good point. The law violates rights, but its all in the best interest of the people. The government wants you safe, their shit is just misdirected.

Well, the first article tried to misdirect everyone's attention with the money thing. The only money actually spent related to SB is for the SB education programs. And even without the laws, it would seem that we'd still have SB education programs.

Another underlying issue is what happens when you are only severely disabled because you weren't wearing a SB. Then society, in one form or another, has to pay to take care of you for the rest of your life. If you engage in risky activity (driving) on public roads, you're going to have to take simple precautions for the benefit of the public as a whole.

Yet another issue is with children. They obviously are not mature enough to decide to free themselves from an oppressive gov't and not wear a SB. I step out on a limb here with made up statistics but something tells me that a majority of adults think children should wear SB in cars. So in that case the law makes sure children wear them and parents wear them to set a good example.

Go Darwin.

But they let you smoke and drink, I am gonna have to call bullshit on this.
I think that it has to do with massive amounts of money that insurance lobbiests (sp) throw around. And why is it the gov't's job to keep me safe, it is my right to do stupid shit and get killed if I like. I have never seen anything that says your seatbelt might not kill you same as it might save you.

What? Trying to read that hurt a little bit. Do you mean "I have never seen any statistics that show that wearing a seatbelt saves lives?"

Here you go:
Seat belts are the single most effective safety device in preventing serious injuries and reducing fatalities in motor vehicle crashes, having saved 11,889 lives in 2000 alone. Research has shown that lap/shoulder belts, when used properly, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent. For light truck occupants, seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 60 percent and moderate-to-critical injury by 65 percent. [3] If the national seat belt use rate increased from 68 percent (the rate measured by State surveys in 1996) to 90 percent, an additional 5,536 fatalities and 132,670 injuries would be prevented each year, resulting in an economic savings of about $8.8 billion annually. [4]

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/ ... belts.html[/url]

By spending that 25 million a year or whatever it was we could save 8.8 billion as a nation just by wearing your damn seatbelt.

My views on seatbelt laws are the same as marijuana laws. If people want to do something stupid that will only hurt themselves, then let them. Cops have better stuff to do and real criminals to catch, and I'd rather have my tax money go elsewhere. However, if you decide to not wear a seatbelt or smoke weed or do something else thats stuipd, you're a god damn retard and deserve whatever you get.

Yes, but they let you smoke and drink because of the lobbyists for those products. (At least for tobacco)

I don't know about you guys, but I'd feel a lot worse if I got into an accident with a guy who didn't have his seatbelt on and got killed than I would if that same person died of smoking-related illness and I had nothing to do with it. People not wearing seatbelts DOES hurt other people. Sure, if a person doesn't wear a seatbelt and dies in an accident because of it, it was their choice.. but that won't make it any easier for the other party involved thinking to themselves for the rest of their life, "if I'd only done such and such..."

Good call poopy.

So, exactly how do they know what would have happened if John Doe wasn't wearing his seatbelt. There is no way to tell if he would have died or not. Do they hire Miss Cleo or what. Those figures are such bullshit. Maybe the correlation is more that people who wear seatbelts tend to be all around more safe (ie not drive as fast, and shit like that).


Sutherlands, I was just trying to make the point that the gov't doesn't give a flying fuck about my personal safety, so long as they make a few bucks.

So you're saying that the fact that the other 2 were safe and the one wearing a seatbelt died is just coincidence? I will agree though, that the government is controlled by lobbyists.