Buckle up or else

Jiggers May 25, 2007 (6:25 pm)

If you plan to go out and drink this weekend, please don’t drive. I only live three blocks from the Junction and don’t want to get hit by a drunk walking home from a bar.

MkH May 25, 2007 (7:07 pm)

Oh, for the love…. Couldn’t they just focus on stopping speeders and other miscreants? Drunk drivers maybe? Perhaps some soon-to-be-deaf bass thumper? Besides, all that squinting in the dark to see if seatbelts are on – we’ll have the whole precinct in glasses within a month.

The House May 25, 2007 (8:15 pm)

Adam Carolla had a great point on his radio show last week. Imagine if every pair of pants had a red light and alarm on them to remind you to zip your fly. How many Public Service Announcements and laws would we have to enact to make you do that? That’s what we do with seatbelts…every car made in the past 10 years has alarms and lights!

Once again…stupid law used just to generate revenue. Should be my choice to wear it or not.

Jo May 26, 2007 (9:23 am)

I thought I read that officers couldn’t stop someone just for not having seatbelt buckled. Need some sort of infraction to pull a driver over…speeding, irratic driving, etc.
Anyone else read this?

flipjack May 26, 2007 (9:24 am)

Yeah but House, you don’t have to clean up the mess after an accident with people not wearing belts.
I agree though. That’s why I drive an ’88 and a ’75 vintage vehicles

Jan May 26, 2007 (11:19 am)

hey, House…do you have kids…or plan to have kids? Would you not require them to be buckled up? Or is that their choice? And if you do have kids, you would teach by example, I hope. There can’t be any “do as I say, not as I do”. When my now 26 yo daughter was little, we told her the car wouldn’t start until all seat belts were engaged. She still uses them EVERY TIME…as do I. As a cancer survivor, I now realize how sweet life is, and I will do anything to keep it that way. If you choose to not buckle up, and want to take your chance with the other guy on the road, that is your personal life, I suppose….you should value yourself more than that. Just MHO..

have a great weekend :)

cami May 26, 2007 (11:47 am)

I think it’s funny that they titled it “Beware…”

s May 26, 2007 (1:27 pm)

i went to school in a town where the cops would set up road blocks and stop every car to check seatbelts. don’t they have more important things to take care of? maybe they don’t want to do the hard/dangerous stuff so they pick on the more law-abiding citizens.

Tish May 26, 2007 (2:32 pm)

Hear hear House. I’m with you!

The House May 27, 2007 (8:43 am)

Jan, I do have kids. I do wear a seatbelt. I do require my kids to wear seatbelts (car seats). I also teach my kids to have respect for people and animals. I teach my kids to hold the door for other people. I teach my kids to say “Thank You” and “Please”. I teach my kids to look both ways while crossing the street. I teach my kids to not run with scissors. I teach my kids not to play with matches. I teach my kids to not play near ledges. I teach my kids that knives can be dangerous. I teach my kids not to throw rocks through other peoples windows (had to say that). Hopefully you’re smart enough to catch on to the fact that I don’t need a law in place to require me to practice something. If your argument is that not everyone has my common sense, then why aren’t their laws for all of the above? If I choose not to wear a seatbelt, then the only person I’m threatening is myself. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a person being killed by an airborne person.

Repeal the seatbelt law and filter all the $$$ spent on PSAs, labor hours used by police officers and clerics and put it towards something useful like fixing potholes.

And to answer Jo’s question….if you’ve ever known anyone in law enforcement, the law is written so that they can’t pull you over for not using your seatbelt, but an officer can easily begin looking for something else (tailight, weaving, etc) and wind up busting you for both. Easy for them to skirt around that one!

Jo May 27, 2007 (10:25 am)

Thanks, House, that’s what I thought re: new seatbelt law.
Also regarding new police cruisers on Alki:
Early Saturday morning (2:05am), I live one block south of Alki Bakery, heard loud ‘squealing’ of car around a corner, heard a ‘chirp’ and saw weirdish flashing lights through my bedroom window, got up and looked out, cop in new patrol car had pulled someone over.
I’m thinking that this person may have stayed until last call at one of the bars one block away and….
I know that some people have been questioning the lack of wisdom or need of large police presence on Alki (or anywhere) due to new seatbelt law, but maybe this stop prevented another fatality.

Jiggers May 27, 2007 (12:12 pm)

I think the point is being missed here by the seatbelt law because everytime a car accident happens without someone wearing a seatbelt, it drives up insurance premiums. Medical cost’s are battled in court and thus charged to insurers who have lost their cases. If wearing a seatbelt helps to by saving human lives, its worth it for police to ticket you. Its not that hard to take three seconds and click it. I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Jan May 27, 2007 (12:28 pm)

House, just so you know…I think I enjoy giving you a hard time…I do it with a smile. I understand what you’re saying. Now, about the “emphasis patrol” re: seatbelts…I was out and about Saturday evening…people speeding at about 50 MPH going down SW Admiral Way…people weaving in and out of traffic…people tailgaiting and then whipping around you at way over the speed limit. One of my favorite sayings while driving is “where’s a cop when you need ’em”. Those are the drivers they need to put the clamps on this weekend, where it’s the most important…the stoopid drivers.We’ve already had some horrendous accidents…. and people still don’t learn..

GenHillOne May 28, 2007 (9:41 am)

First let me say that everyone wears a seatbelt in my car and the debate over emphasis patrols aside, here’s some food for thought. Unfortunately House, people HAVE been killed by an airborne person. Anything can become a projectile in an accident, including a human body. I’m choosing not to link it here because it’s not for the faint of heart and falls under a parental guidance rating for sure, but there is an incredibly graphic seatbelt ad from the UK out there that shows what can happen when even one out of four passengers isn’t belted. There are all kinds of accident videos floating around, but I don’t need to see those to be convinced seatbelts are a good idea. The UK ad uses actors (and computers?) to really make a point. Now I always think about what’s sitting on my back seat…wouldn’t it be tragic to be saved by your seatbelt but killed by that object hitting you in the head? I knew someone in high school that was killed by a tool box this way but had forgotten about it until I saw the video. Use your trunk!

The House May 28, 2007 (1:24 pm)

GenHillOne, glad you wasted your time typing your comment. I’m not debating whether seatbelts are useful or not. I’m debating that we should not be mandated to wear them by our government. Using the logic you use above we should pass a law mandating that you must carry all personal items in the trunk, not in the front seat for fear that it might kill you.

We might as well ban driving since it seems to be near the top of the list of reasons why people die.

Try to stay on point next time!

GenHillOne May 28, 2007 (4:33 pm)

Geeeez, that’s sort of why I said debate aside. I actually agree with you on the law, House. Just trying to say that such discussions make me think about how I choose to live my own life and keep the ones I love safe, often leading me to do more research – i.e. finding the various videos online and perhaps discovering a better (for me) way of doing things. That’s why I appreciate the opportunity for discussion in the first place. Why so angry?