Wear your seatbelt!

[Lou_Dorchen]

I see you're a gun guy. You do know those hurt and kill thousands of innocent people every year. Don't you think someone needs to take those away for the safety of the rest of us?

[CamaroSkooter]

[Berean]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

Don't lecture me on freedoms

If you want to kill yourself, you're more than welcome to. But driving a car on a public roadway is not a right, it's a privilege. That's why you're required to take a test to be granted that privilege.

And since it's a privilege to drive a car on a public road, then you are required to abide by the laws set forth by the public road's owners/operators (i.e. state government) to be allowed to use that road.

So please, tell me again how you have the freedom to drive your car however you want

How you drive your car, and what you're wearing while doing so are two completely different things. You seem to be purposely trying to miss that point.

You've lost your freedom when you think it's ok for government to pass laws to protect you from yourself. Once people accept the premise, then it's only a matter of degree.


By the way, the OP's commercial is one of the best I've ever seen. I'm an advocate of seatbelts, just not a law forcing adults to wear them.

[strych9]

Originally Posted by Lou_Dorchen

As long as you laugh at me for standing up for my freedoms, you're going to get a lecture.

I don't want to kill myself. But I dont want someone telling me what I have to wear in MY car that I bought with MY money that I made by working at MY job. You want someone to run your life, fine. But dont tell me how to live mine.

And as for it being a privelege and thus we have to allow them to dictate how we use it, you've fallen for their bs line. Who pays for the roads? We do. So don't tell me I have to pay for something, then give me all these intrusive rules I have to follow to enjoy what I paid for. You just wait, sooner or later they will come for the rights you value. When they do, remember what you've said here about personal rights.

It's clear by your statements made here that you care only for your freedoms, and not for your safety and well-being. You don't care if your exercised freedoms kill yourself, or others. You don't care about your family potentially losing you. Okay, that's fair.

I personally do care that I don't leave my son orphaned. I gave up my Harley for this very reason. Sure, I believe in freedom. But I also believe that common-sense and smart-thinking should prevail. So, even though I have the freedom to own and ride a motorcycle, I consciously choose not to, for my own safety, and the security of my young son.

Sounds to my like you choose not to wear a seatbelt, just because "big government" says you must. Yes, you have the freedom to not comply, potentially with consequences to bear. Whatever. It's attitudes like yours that force laws like this in the first place.

I've been in a couple of severe accidents. In both cases, I can safely say that I would have been seriously injured without the use of seatbelts and airbags. If they made it a law that seatbelts be excluded from new cars, well...I'd stop driving.

[KXRM]

Originally Posted by Lou_Dorchen

I don't want to kill myself. But I dont want someone telling me what I have to wear in MY car that I bought with MY money that I made by working at MY job. You want someone to run your life, fine. But dont tell me how to live mine.

Hey if you add in that it's YOUR roadway on YOUR private property than go nuts, no one is going to cite you for not wearing one there because NO ONE else could be hurt or killed by your negligence. I and everyone else pays for the road way to share it and without laws it would be chaotic. Your choice to do or not do something on a public road way effect others. Also I disagree that mandating safety belts is in the same league as outlawing fast cars. I can still choose not to go fast in a fast car on pubic road ways. I can still choose to have fun in MY car on MY private road way (if I happen to have one) going whatever speed I like. I can still choose to go fast on private land where I can drive fast safely on a track with others.

The whole big government argument is a cop out.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by Berean

How you drive your car, and what you're wearing while doing so are two completely different things. You seem to be purposely trying to miss that point.

You've lost your freedom when you think it's ok for government to pass laws to protect you from yourself. Once people accept the premise, then it's only a matter of degree.


By the way, the OP's commercial is one of the best I've ever seen. I'm an advocate of seatbelts, just not a law forcing adults to wear them.

The law isn't there to protecting only yourself from injury

Refer back to one of my earlier posts for an example of this.

[Berean]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

The law isn't there to protecting only yourself from injury

Refer back to one of my earlier posts for an example of this.

Right. Like I said, if you accept the premise, then it's only a matter of degree. Sure, someone could lose control of their car in an accident if they're not wearing their seatbelts.

Someone could get injured everytime you shoot your gun at a range too.

As Bilbo said "It's a dangerous business going out your front door."

So now that we've accepted the premise that you need to be protected from yourself, lets confine everyone to a nice safe environment. I believe they call it a zoo.

[CamaroSkooter]

It's all about percentages and probabilities.

You could die out on the golf course in a thunderstorm from a lightning strike, but you don't see the government passing laws forbidding people from playing golf in a thunderstorm, do you?

If you honestly think that seatbelt laws were passed to protect ONLY the driver, then you're beyond reasoning with.

[Berean]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

It's all about percentages and probabilities.

You could die out on the golf course in a thunderstorm from a lightning strike, but you don't see the government passing laws forbidding people from playing golf in a thunderstorm, do you?

If you honestly think that seatbelt laws were passed to protect ONLY the driver, then you're beyond reasoning with.

They were passed to generate revenue also.

If you think they were passed to keep someone in a 30MPH crash from losing control of their car, then you're beyond reasoning with.

[garcmol]

And damn that ABS too.... I have the right to skid out of control whenever nature and road conditions dictate. And safety glass and those damn stripes they paint on MY highway.

Whatever.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by Berean

They were passed to generate revenue also.

If you think they were passed to keep someone in a 30MPH crash from losing control of their car, then you're beyond reasoning with.

Why don't we test it. Here, you go first

[Lou_Dorchen]

These ridiculous scenarios you trot out to justify taking rights away are a cop out. It's my life, let me live it. And on the flip side, you live your life how you want. It's all about the "pursuit of happiness" people fought and died for so we could have. And guys like you are content to just give it away. It's quite sad actually.

[CamaroSkooter]

Tell you what, here are some photos for you to think about.

This was my first car, a 1986 Chevy S-10 Blazer. No airbags, I think ABS was still practically brand new that year:



Then, while driving down a road going only 45mph, a lady pulls out from a side street right in front of me, and I t-bone her SUV.

Here's the aftermath:



The dent above is where the back of her SUV spun around and hit the side of my vehicle in a secondary impact.







I was wearing my seatbelt and walked away from the collision. I had a sore right foot (from jamming on the brake pedal right before impact) and later a sore neck from the whiplash. I also had major seatbelt burn on my right hip.

I was travelling in the left lane (to the right of the center turn lane) of a 6-lane undivided major thoroughfare. There was traffic travelling the opposite direction of me in the three lanes, presumably also going 45mph.

Because I had my seatbelt on, I was able to continue holding the brake pedal to the floor, and stopped my vehicle before it rolled into the oncoming traffic.

Let me be very clear, this collision was very violent. In fact, I can still remember watching my sunglasses fly off of my face and landing in the front passenger's footwell like it was in slow motion.

If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt, I would be dead or very severely injured. I have no doubt about that. If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt, I would not have been able to continue holding the brake pedal down, and my vehicle would have rolled directly into oncoming traffic. And if I had rolled into oncoming traffic, that collision would most certainly have injured more than just myself, in a collision that wasn't even my fault to begin with.

I am done with this argument. If you want to drive without your seatbelt, then fine, do what you want. But I will have absolutely no sympathy for you when you get a traffic ticket for it or, God forbid, when the day comes that you have that sudden realization that you were dead wrong about how not wearing your seatbelt can't hurt anyone other than yourself.

Edit: I've attached an image of the intersection where my collision happened. My collision was in June of 2003, and the city has since made the center lane a concrete median because apparently what happened to me was a common enough occurrence to warrant dividing the traffic with a median.

[toesuf94]

if you have not eaten, or wish to again...DO NOT WATCH THIS. However, seat belts would have been a good idea in this crash...as would not driving like an asshat in the first place.