Bad choices, not seat-belt laws, are to blame in traffic deaths

Someone said that an unbelted person cannot harm others, well there are several videos on You-Tube that show people gettting thrown from their car into oncoming traffic and causing secondary and tertiary accidents.

That being said, the reason I do not believe in regulating fat people, smokers, or stupid parents is because they cannot directly affect me (I said directly, yes your bad parented child could shoot mine someday, but I can train my child to avoid yours), and they are not using publically supported programs. I don't smoke, if I smell your smoke, you were obviously there first so I move or choose someplace else to eat, you have your right to smoke. My insurance agent used my military eval (the part where I was within body fat standards and passed the physical readiness test) to give me a "healthy lifestyle" discount. Fat people, smokers, alcoholics are doing plenty to weed themselves out of society, we don't need to try and save them. But if you are using roads that my taxes (and soon to be tolls) pay for, you should be mindful of those around you and respect the right to life of others by being safe, sober and attentive.

By the way, I don't live in the VA Beach area, but from what I have been told Elbow Rd. is a very bad road. Many wrecks have been on that road. The shoulder can make one lose control of the vehicle. So why hasn't any safety measures been made to this road? Guardrails, widening of the road, or smoothing of the shoulder. What will it take for that road to be fixed?!

Kerry,
Please be more sensitive to the family members who are mourning over their loved ones. The 21 year old is part of my family and let me tell you, she was very religious about wearing her seatbelt and for those around her. So, yes, it is a mystery as to why it wasn't on at that time. What went on for her not to have it on? Unfortunately, no one will ever know. Please be mindful before making your opinions public and not knowing the whole. Try investigating before publicizing.

That is why there cannot be a law attempting to force it's use! There are plenty of things the average person CAN do everyday to be safer, but they are not FORCED by law. Eating right makes sense, why is there no law. We know that insurance rates increase because of fat people (I know it's "insensitive"), and we know that it can prolong a life... Where is the disconnect? How about not smoking? How about being a good, responsible, involved, parent? We know that good parents tend to raise kids who don't kill, steal, rape, etc, so that benefits all... Make a law! When we all realize we cannot legislate for morality or stop stupid people from using their keen instincts for stupidity, we will all be better off. Oh yeah, don't take drugs! They are bad for you. Since there is a law against taking drugs, I am sure no one can get them, but I thought I would mention it anyway. It's an EASY request, so no one should do it. Sounds simple.

IS for the driver and passengers in their car at the time of an accident no matter who is at fault. Your liability coverage is for the people you injure and/or their property. (third party you mentioned) Talk to your insurance agent to get your facts straight please.

You should not be driving like a racecar driver. In normal driving, by the time the seatbelt comes into play the car is out of your control. So please explain how not wearing it puts anyone else at risk. I have never heard that someone was hit by a person being thrown from their car in a crash.

Insurance companies should follow the military way of looking at it. Get hurt in an accident and your seatbelt is not on (or your motorcycle safety gear is not on) and you are not covered my your military medical coverage. They also ban all cell phones on bases, and they DO pull you over for talking on blue tooth (at least on the Norfolk main base).

Personally I think there should be either a seatbelt interlock that wont start your car until all seats that sense a passenger in them are belted, or automatic seatbelts, or at the very least a seat sensor/external signal that will be a tell tale to all who care (including the Po-Po) that someone sensed in a the car seat (weight sensor or infa-red) is not belted.

If parents dont care about their kids being belted, someone should...

But it should not be the government's business to protect us from our own stupidity. Seat belts save lives, and so do helmets for that matter, but not wearing one does not endanger the lives of others.

All persons who get a license have been told to wear a seatbelt. Adults with children know that they need to restrain their child. I believe if someone dies in a car crash because they were not wearing a seatbelt, there should be a vehicular manslaughter charge or murder charge against the driver. This may actually wake some people up.

For all the people ejected and/or killed in car crashes, think of the thousands who survive due to seat belts + front/side/curtain airbags. They live to crash another day - and possibly kill others.

All of the advances in the name of safety make it too easy to take that call, apply that make-up, change that song, or answer that text.

riesley74: Love your 'thin the herd' remark. Comic Brad Stein once suggested we do away with airbags and replace them with anvils. Now wouldn't THAT motivate people to:

pay attention, use turn signals, pull off the highway and take a nap when tired, avoid tailgating, call a friend or cab when drunk
better manage their time to avoid running late, let others in when they signal to get over

Oh, man, I know all of you clever readers out there could offer endless add-ons to this list. Feel free.

Brian, they can show proof many ways. If a person is wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident there will be wear marks on the seatbelt. The person will also have scratches and bruises from the strain on the belt. They will also be able to tell depending on the impact location by looking at the windshield. if you are hit headon and there is no seatbelt worn unless you are at very slow speeds there will still be a minor impact on the windsheild. Possibly not as severe as would have without an airbag but you can fly over the top of the airbag and still impact the windshield.

Brian, they can prove it the same way they prove you were speeding or ran a stop sign. The officer that issued the ticket offers evidence in the form of testimony under oath that he observed you failing to wear your seat belt / speeding / failing to stop. No photos or video needed, only the sworn testimony of a law enforcement officer. In almost any court in the land, it is gospel, and above reproach. Why do you think so few people actually get found not guilty of traffic offenses? It's the officer's word against yours and theirs is presumed to carry more weight.

There should have been a ban cell phone law

When someone else's failure to control their vehicle because they're not in a seat belt puts me and my passengers at risk, it's very much my business.

But I'm more concerned about the lack of empathy Kerry shows for her fellow man. Each of us is an important and necessary member of the community. Not caring about our fellow man (and woman and child) is as sure a sign of civic breakdown as any. This is not a religious thing; it's very practical. If we can't work together, we can't find solutions to problems and share in our common victories. It's okay, even good, to question things, and to work for change when you believe it's called for. But societies fall apart when trust and caring disappears.

I for one think that Virginia should get rid of their mandatory seatbelt law, lets get back to natural selection here folks. The herd needs to be thinned out alittle. Heres an even better one for the car manufacturers, make air bags only deployable, if the the seatbelt is fastened. I will agree, its all about choices and living with the consequences of said choices.

my dog even wears a seatbelt

Not only is it not where they make there money, but it is intended for passengers and other injured third parties. it will not benefit the driver. Most commercial insurance customers do not even have it due to work comp.

Yes My View call.

some people just aren't going to wear them regardless.but i would ask that in public schools they should show these new potential drivers the wrecks of the 1/4 mile and 500 mile races,not death on the highways.look at how violent some of those wrecks are and 99% of those drivers walk away from them without a scratch.then teach them a little about physics.body's in motion remain in motion.your car is traveling at 55mph you hit a solid wall stopping the car immediately,your body and anything else in your car is still traveling at 55 mph and will continues to do so until it is also stopped by something,windshields,steering wheel,brick wall,pavement,trees,another vehicle.use your head for more than a bumper.we are all subject to(Newtons First Law).someone asked how can you tell if a person was wearing a seat belt,99.9% of the time they can tell.your body bruises when slammed against the nyl

Twenty years ago my brother lost a friend, he wasnt wearing a seat belt and was killed. Since then my brother insisted everyone to wear a seat belt, that is also when I got a clue and wore my seat belt. His freind was 15, and was thrown out of a flipping car and between the sunroof and the ground when the car stopped. People need to learn with out something like this to happen, use your seatbelt!!! Only this past Saturday I saw a toddler in the back seat of a car, on a womans lap!!! I just hoped he got home safe, I wonder can you call the police if you witness something like that?

How can they prove in court that someone wasn't wearing a seat belt?

To wear or not to wear a seatbelt is a simple but important choice one makes when driving. To use a cell phone or not to use a cell phone while driving is another choice. Simple choices that can mean the difference between life and death. It is hard to believe the number of people in this country who make the wrong choices - then end up dead or causing the deaths of other people. Seatbelt and cell phone laws are ridiculous because they try to regulate stupidity, and stupidity is pretty hard to get out of some people.

Insurance companies would not give a discount for wearing a seat belt because it only affects the medical payments coverage part of the policy, and that premium is usually insignificant. The reason why they rally for seat belt laws is because it helps lower the chance of a big liability payout. Maybe what we need are laws limiting the amount of a settlement if the injured party was injured more severely or died because they did not wear a seat belt.

It's just good sense to wear your seatbelt in case you hit something. It's better to have it on if someone else happens to hit you. Even if you're the perfect driver who does everything right, there's the hoards of cell phone chatting, burger eating, and booze drinking fools out there that have no regard for either the traffic laws or you. In their disdain for all that is sensible, through running red lights, speeding, or otherwise failing to maintain proper control of their cars, they turn their conveyances into multi-thousand pound battering rams with your vehicle on the receiving end.

I agree personal safety should not be a factor in traffic laws. If you're only increasing risk to yourself, it's no business of the government. We'd have to ban motorcycles totally to follow the safety logic.

On the other hand, a driver not wearing a seatbelt can be easily thrown out of reach of the controls and cause a secondary collision. I think that supports mandatory seatbelt laws for the driver but not for passengers.

A friend sent me a short, chilling video-clip, which to say the least, is the best testiment I've ever seen as to why we should all wear seatbelts...
An SUV driver tries to beat 2 cars in front of him on a freeway on-ramp, by passing them both on the right shoulder. While passing the second car, he sideswipes its passenger side, loses control, spins around nose-to-tail & barrel rolls across 5 lanes; hitting the center barrier.
As the SUV comes upright from the roll, before it hits the barrier; the driver is catapulted out his open side window, thrown across the barrier, landing 2 lanes into the other side & promptly bounces into the center lane, where within 2 seconds, he is hit & driven over by an oncomming car. His arms & legs end up at skewed angles that human appendages are not meant to bend. It all happens in less than 10 seconds.
Kerry, if you wish, I could forward it to you for posting - if that's pos

A 200-pound projectile that could strike an innocent bystander? And when was the last time that happened? We should pass a law based on a one-in-a-billion possibility? Kerry's on the money with this one. The government shouldn't mandate taking care of oneself. And instead of your insurance company bribing you or rewarding you for something you should be doing any way, the reinforcement should be negative. If you are in an accident and aren't wearing your seat belt, the insurance company should be able to tell you to get bent when you file your claim.

Lores, you hit on a very interesting point. It is, in fact, the insurance companies who lobby for the seatbelt laws, either primary or secondary, but especially a primary offense. Regardless of what the politicians tell you, if you get cited for a seatbelt violation in a primary offense state your insurance company WILL be notified and your rates WILL be jacked up.

Primary offense seatbelt laws are money makers for both the state and the insurance companies.

I never go without my seatbelt, not because it is the law, because it was wha I was taught when learning to drive back in the 70s, long before such laws.

Seat Belts are Great they do save lives. I think if you want to change behavior you use economic incentives and my insurance company offers me a discount of 8% if I agree to have everyone buckled up. I think all insurance companies should offer that kind of discount including a severe penalty for not using seat belts. But the largest killer on the road is inattention and distraction. People are driving tired or under medication and driving off the road or into other vehicles. We need a grass roots effort to combat driving while tired and medicated. We read of people driving off the road and into things each week. How many of them were strokes or seizures? How many of them were people who suddenly who just fell asleep for a second or 2? I don't see a follow up by the press into the autopsy results as to why someone drove off the road at 4pm on Saturday. Shouldn't the state police be compiling the statistic

I don't think we have issues with the seat belt laws, but definitely issues with people not wearing their belts while driving. Unfortunately, as much as the government tries, you can't legislate common sense (or morals, so just give that up). It's the basic law of physics - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Unfortunately, the equal and opposite reaction these days has been needless deaths of young children and adults for not wearing their seatbelts and driving stupidly.