Click-it-or-Ticket - Good or Bad

[rsstites]

Howdy,

Right now the US Office of Traffic Safety is sponsering its national "Click-it-or-Ticket" camaign. This is where they give millions to local and state agancies to send police officers out to only write seatbelt tickets.

Overall it has improved the California seatbelt compliance average up to about 93%. I'm not sure what it has gone up to nationaly. This has saved millions of lives from more people wearing their seatbelts whent they get in bad car crashes.

But this has also forced people to wear their seatbelts when they don't necessarily want to, or agree that they should be forced to wear their seatbelt.

Is this a good thing, a bad thing, and why?

[Coolgreen44]

I dont think you should be forced to wear a seatbelt, wear a helmet, or any of those other safety laws.

If your a moron and want to die its your right. I do not see why I should stop them.

[rsstites]

One strong argument is that the moron also may not have insurance. So when they get hurt they go to a county hospital, and never pay their bill. Now all the taxpayers are paying the bill for them.

So if they can't be responsible, and are costing the state and taxpayers extra money, then we should spend the money to force them to be responsible.

Also there is always the argument that driving is a privledge not a right.

[Coolgreen44]

I hate that. I hate it when the government calls things privlages not rights. I think it is immportant to secure our rights. Anytime a single right in infringed on it is ifringing on all rights.

I always think the goverment is trying to take our rights and take out lives.

I understand the cost thing and thats a good point.

[wolf]

You know whats funny seatbelts and helmets are for protecting morons like Coolgreen was talking about. I think it is a good thing you should have to wear them they are for protection.

[rickjames]

Doing this Click-it-or -Ticket stuff isn't going to make people put on their seatbelts. If people are too lazy, or too cool to reach up and click on a a seat belt, a law wont make them do it. Pepole don't stop speeding because they "can" get tickets for it.
Plus, I doubt law enforcment will go out of their way to enforce this law.

This is kind of like the issue with police car chases. When innocent civilians get killed because the police want to catch a guy who was speeding and went away. I think they are doing too much at this point.

[wolf]

Yeah i know it wont do anything but it is good to have that as a law i think.

[Holymonkey]

Well I can comment but not really understand it due to the differencesin our governments. The tax argument wouldn't work here because we have the NHS so we're all paying for ttreatment through taxation and another thing people here have already showed their disdain with government getting to involved with traffic. Some laws are fine but when i comes right down to it there'd be outrage. For example Tony Blair was talking of putting in these chips into engines to track the miles you drive in a car and paying a certain amount for each mile. As soon as this was talked about a petition went onto the government website where almost 2 million people signed against this measure.

So anyway if the people don't want it the government better listen. LAws don;t stop poeple doing things.

[rickjames]

This brings me to another thing I don't like that they've done in some place: installing cameras at stop lights to catch people who run red lights... are we turning into George Orwell's society now where Big Brother is watching everything we do.

[Holymonkey]

That's nothing. In a couple of towns here we now have talikg \CCTV cameras...people actually have the job to watch people and tell them they are doing something wrong...
All in the interest in Safety...

[Fine_Rabid_Dog]

I honestly can't believe people find it questionable as to whether one should obey a pretty sensible law.

To say "Why should we have to wear a seatbelt?" suggests a pretty inadequate understanding of the extermities of a road accident. I've had guys from my school nearly killed becuase they were'nt wearing theirs.

If I remember right... they were in hospital for about 3 months.

And now these guys wear their seatbelts every tiome they get in a car.

Here in britain, it is totally against the law to ride in a car minus a seatbelt. A car witrhout seatbelts is illegal.

And I'm grateful for that law. Road deaths are a lot less, and my rights are hardly infringed.

To take on a an attitude like "let the morons die, but keep my rights intact" is a bloody stupid way of going about things. It only encourages the morons, and I fail to see how there being a law to buckle up is against your rights if your best interest and health is wha thte law is aiming for.

I think that fining those that don't wear a belt is a good plan.

But i think having cops who only specficially fine those riding unsafley is an odd distribution of law enforcement. IT would make sense to just five all cops the ability, and have a focus on something like drug dealing or something of that nature...

[rsstites]

I agree FRD, but I think I may not have been completely clear. It is, and has been, against the law to not wear your seatbelt for some time now (in the States).

The seatbelt usage rate was rather low, so the Office of Traffic safety started the "Click-it or Ticket" grant for local law enforcement agencies.

Basically OTS pays for extra cops on the roads, these extra cops only write seatbelt tickets while they are being paid through the OTS grant. They still work their normal days, but the OTS stuff is on overtime.

OTS then has millions of TV and radio commercials telling people to wear their seatbelts or they will get tickets.

This enforcement lasts for about five weeks then everything goes back to normal.

Any cop can write a seatbelt ticket at anytime, it doesn't have to be during the grant periord, and they don't have to be paid by OTS.

We also have similar programs for drugs, gangs, etc... We find that directed investigation and enforcement reaps direct results. While random enforcement reaps random results.

Statistically, the seatbelt usage rate accross the nation is up to about 95%. It was close to about 80% when they started the seatbelt grants about five years ago. So it has done some good, and has probably saved millions of lives.

[danizduhman]

I didn't know that it was against the law in the states.....hell I never really do.


But one thing I am glad for is in my car, it automatically does it. When I turn on the car, it sweeps over you, and buckles itself. So it helps the lazy people like me who think it's a nuissance.

[Fine_Rabid_Dog]

[rsstites]

No many cars do that over here. The problem that can arise is that after a decade or so the device starts to fail, then the seatbelt doesnt' work at all.

I have not seen that in too many new cars though. Probably because it tends to eventually stop working.

When it stops working, and you don't get it fixed. Then you have to unbuckle it from the top.

The best thing aboutn them is that if you don't have your seatbelt on, you have a buckle hanging down from the top. It makes it real easy for cops to see if you don't have it on.