In the three years since state lawmakers gave cops the go-ahead to pull over people for not wearing seat belts, the State Patrol has become creative about spotting scofflaws. But one new approach has raised a few eyebrows — while providing results troopers call impressive. On Saturday, a trooper stood on a street corner in Spanaway, Pierce County, and helped bust 30 people for not wearing their seat belts. The trooper, wearing plain clothes and a cardboard sign around his neck that read "Happy Holidays Buckle Up," was able to keep a close eye on passing traffic from the southeast corner of Highway 7 and 112th Street East. When he spotted someone who wasn't wearing a seat belt, the trooper radioed fellow troopers parked nearby who pulled over the offender. In four hours, 41 cars were stopped and 30 seat-belt tickets, costing violators $101 per infraction, were handed out, Trooper J.J. Gundermann said. Troopers also made one drug arrest and six outstanding-warrant arrests. Funny, but silly at the same time. Makes me think of what they used to do with photo-radar here. Basically they would take an older looking truck, park it by the side of the road, flip the hood up, and duck down beside it with the gun. Though it was deemed "unfair" a while later and the police were stoped from doing it. Silly cops Careful who you give charity too!
I see nothing wrong with this. If you're not smart enough to wear your seatbelt, you deserve to pay the fine. Better than getting ejected 50+ feet out your windsheild when you get into an accident.
Parents should have a responsibility to make sure children wear seatbelts, that way when they are older they will put it on without thinking. I put on my seatbelt without realising, sort of an automatic function when I get into a car.
Same here, but I think it's more the result of living with parents who were Firefighters/EMTs my whole life, and I've been a Firefighter since I turned 18 (4 years ago). Plus, I've seen way too many bad things happen to people from not taking that extra 1.3 seconds to go *click*.
I have a perfect example for wearing your seatbelt. Just this Sunday my cousin was in an accident and rolled his car, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and he was thrown out of the sunroof and the car rolled over him. He is now in critical condition with a broken neck, a torn up spine and two broken legs. He will never walk again or even be able to stand according to the doctors. WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS, If a person get's fined for not wearing one then IMO they have it coming. As for children, nothing torks me off more than to be behind a car and see kids crawling around or sitting on a parents lap. Stupid people shouldn't have kids.
Alright, so seatbelts are good? Well, food for thought: WHY are seatbelts forced upon you? I honestly don't think it should be illegal not to wear them; why? It’s simple really: think of it as taking your own life in your hands (yeah, I know, you will be taking yourself out of the life of other people, spare me, please). If it is illegal to put your life on the line, then why in the hell do we even drive cars? Why do we own guns? Why are knifes allowed in houses? Smoking is one of the major causes of death in north america! All these things are perfectly legal, and can cause the same (if not more) damage than not wearing your seatbelt can. Here is an excellent example for you: my one buddy, Thrush, his father and a buddy were driving one night in an old suburban along a rural road. Neither of them had their seatbelts on mind you. So after a good bit of driving, they come around a corner to find a black angus cow standing right in the middle of their lane, so they swerve to avoid it. Anybody who knows a suburban knows that they don't exactly corner like a porsche. Though we're not talking about novice drivers either here (Thrush's dad is ex-pro drag racer and has done circuit racing as well). So anyway, they swerve, hit the ditch, and roll over a few times. The truck is completely crushed, and the roof actually came down so low, that parts were below the dash level. Both of them lived. For the driver, he was ejected out the side when the door was ripped off. The passenger was pushed down almost right into the floor and the roof actually dented in around his head. The driver walked away with major trauma to his spine (a couple crushed disks and some other nervous damage, but rehab is helping), and the passenger walked away as well with roughly the same injuries. Both of them are expected to have a full recovery. Now, the police went over the accident multiple times and to this day cannot figure out how either of them lived, because it was determined that if they both had their seatbelts on (as the cops were lead to believe), they both would have been killed almost instantly. Yeah, seatbelts save lives, but they don't always work Here, this is a good read on seat belt safety if anybodys interested.
Come to the UK, we still have un marked vans (even though we shouldnt have) with cameras for speeding and theycheck your number plate for tax, and soon (when the daterbase is upto date) it will also check your insurance is current and the MoT. plus all the static speed cameras hidden behind trees/signs etc on the spot fines for having your fog lights on when its not foggy (but no fines for the washer jet LED's they are legal), not wearing seatbelts, too many passengers, bald tyres, having lights out/not working, too loud of sound system and exhaust, wheels sticking out further than the wing (putting wider alloys on) tinted windows on the front side windows. you can also get a £30 fine for having a dirty number plate!!! the law states that a number plate can be clearly visible by the naked eye at a set distance (i cant remember) not obscured in any way and also be identified by a camera night or day. that also includes having a number plated bulb out. a report earlier on in the year said that £86m was made out of speeding fines thats alot cos 1 fine is £60 and there are about 60m people in the UK and not all of them drive!!! Every time you get pulled over (and they can an will pull you if they dont like the look of you cos now the terrorist law is in, they can pull you and impound your car if they suspect you to be a terrorist and that is not linked to one religion or race) and search your car so dont get funny with them, you will get beatholised, drug tested and given a producer to produce your documents to your nearest police station with in 7 days. the other great law is an ASBO, not alot of people know about this, but all it takes is one person to not like you (can be a civilian) and report your for not driving correctly, ie speeding, with out due care and attention, stereo too loud etc and you will get an ASBO, if you get caught doing a similar thing anywhere in the country its a automatic £60 fine and 3 points. oh and dont drive through a puddle http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/4392092.stm
There's also cases where people have been decapitated by automatic seatbelts. But if you do some number crunching, I guarantee the number of people who've survived crashes because of wearing their seatbelt far outweighs the others.
Because its easier to get money out of the motorist as it is black and white, you either was or wasnt wearing a seatbelt, $101 please. or shall i spend the next 3 weeks chacing up reports of bugulars in an area, get no extra revenue into the station to pay for the nice new coffee machine that makes the expressos the way i like them. and spend days going through paper work. its victimising the motorist. 60% of law abiding motorists in the UK HAVE a criminal record now because they commited a motoring offence. if you get fined in this country you get a criminal record. and this can go against you (in extreme cases) of getting a job/ morgage/ loans etc
Oh no, don't get me wrong, I believe people should buckle up, I just don't think it should be government mandated in any way shape or form. I do wear my seat belt (though I'm not often in a car).
There are warning signs and they're big boxes painted bright orange. It's also not illegal to have devices that warn you when one's coming up. Do you not watch Top Gear? One point with rear seatbelts, "an unrestrained back seat passenger in a crash can be thrown forward with the impact of three and a half tons." 2003 - 20th anniversary of seat belts - estimated 50,000 lives saved. That's just in the UK. Now will you please stop using your phone and concentrate on the road? Everybody seems to be ignoring that law now.
Can we all agree that anyone under the legal age of adulthood (18 in the US) should be required by law to wear a seatbelt? We need to protect children from stupid parents and this is a great way to do it... For adults - there is some debate that could be had as to whether they should be required by law to wear seatbelts or not. I am leaning towards requiring seatbelts for everyone, but there are some good arguments in the other direction. This is similar to the motorcycle helmet laws that get some people upset...
Really! I didn't realise that. Thats a good thing. Fog lights in your rear view mirror are really blinding when its only raining!! Dont you agree? Oh and people are still using phones aren't they driving! Another dangourous one is undertaking up the hardshoulder a few 100 yards on the motor way to get to the next junction. I've seen a cop pull over for this one - had a good snigger to myself
Serves him right tbh. If you don't want to wear your seatbelt, have your wallet ready. Simple as that.
Yep but there are still a large number of speed scameras obsucred or not painted a bright colour in the UK they havnt got around to changing them all. the legislation stated that all NEW speed cameras will be brightly coloured but it could not include the ones that had already been put up as it would have cost the tax payer (yep the tax payer gos the camera compaines said why should we have to pay for a change in the law that the public forced in to action) millions, but they are changing them to save public face
Reminds me of the bit that was going around the internet when the cameras were first put in place. A man recieved a picture of his car speeding and a speeding ticket, he then mailed a picture of the check back to the police station. They then returned an envelope to the man containing a picture of hand cuffs. The man paid the fine.. LMAO Classic.
in the UK, it is the drivers responcibility to make sure everyone in the car has thier seatbelts on. as for cameras, in bournemouth there are hundreds of fixxxed ones already, and the still put those little portable ones up, usually hidden in a bus, face down hill, so that poepl freewheeling down the hill in their cars get caught. its shamefull. however, use a bycicle with a sign on you back saying somthing very rude, and cycle past the porta-camera at over the limit get flashed. the cant find out who you are, and they have a nice to the point message! ===EDIT=== that story reminds me of the bloke who got a ticket for driving at 115Mph, and he disputeded it, cos he was driving an old banger. to prove he didnt do it he took his car to a test track, and the test driver(s) proved that his car could infact only just break the 100mph mark, and the ticket was revoked!
