“Primary enforcement” proposals are raising libertarian hackles in Massachusetts. (Scot Lehigh, “Reining in seat belt enforcement”, Boston Globe, Jan. 17).
Mandatory seat-belt laws
“Primary enforcement” proposals are raising libertarian hackles in Massachusetts. (Scot Lehigh, “Reining in seat belt enforcement”, Boston Globe, Jan. 17).
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They’re doing something similar in Alaska now…and this is a state with more Republicans than Massachusetts has Democrats. Scary.
Maybe the police are just bored. C’mon, let’s go rob some houses or something.
When a person makes a mistake on the road and causes an accident with someone else, he (she) usually gets a traffic ticket. However, if the other person is killed, the driver who caused the crash faces some kind of a homicide charge based on negligence and the fact of the fatality. The charge may be a high grade misdemeanor, but in other cases the charge may be a felony. These charges are all serious and have significant license suspensions, heavy fines, and jail. The homicide charge is even applicable if the “victim” would have survived had he (she) had the seatbelt on properly. Most states have provisions in the law where the lack of seatbelt use cannot be used as mitigating evidence for the person charged.
People badly injured (by not wearing a belt) can also sue to recover enormous expenses from the other driver when the injuries could have been eliminated by seatbelts. Naturally the estate of a dead driver or passenger can sue as well. While I disagree with the use of roadblocks for seatbelt and other random enforcement, I think seatbelt laws with appropriate enforcement can reduce this problem – absent a law giving complete immunity to the person causing the crash. I hate useless laws, but this one actually has merit. Of course part of the problem is that too often we allow lawyers to write the laws.