What’s Is The Deal With Seat Belt Laws?
Before I start my incoherent rant about seat belt laws, let me first state that I am very pro seat belts. I wear them in every car I get into, even when I take Ubers. I feel uncomfortable without one on at this point, like Ricky Bobby at his first press conference or Mitch in Old School (I also don’t condone the hard F). Hell, if my computer chair had a seat belt I might strap in during a particularly intense day (read: intense round of solitaire).
Now that the caveats are out of the way, let’s talk about this whole seat belt issue. Recently a friend of mine got a ticket for not wearing his seat belt. These fines can range from $15 to $162 (California, smh) depending on the state. And pretty much every state has some form of seat belt law, (except New Hampshire where they actually live up to their state motto ‘Live Free or Die’):
The ‘intent’ of these laws are to save lives, and the numbers do back this up: National seat belt use rate is at 90.7%, but of the 37,133 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2017, 47% were not wearing seat belts. A cynical person would say that it’s not about safety, but about revenue generation for these states. (I won’t go that far, however, I don’t believe that tickets should have a monetary value – but that’s a blog for another time).
But here is my number one problem with this law… MORTOCYCLES EXIST AND ARE LEGAL. How can you possibly pull someone over and give them a ticket for not wearing a seat belt and then watch someone ride by in a seat belt-less metal crotch rocket and say ‘yup, no issue there’. How does that make any sense? Where are their seat belts?
I’m not hating on motorcycles, if people want to ride them, they should be able to ride them. But just like not wearing seat belts, the data is pretty obvious that motorcycles are dangerous (30x higher fatality rate than cars). Knowing this, and the fact that there is no protection outside of wearing a helmet (which somehow is less strict by state than seat belts) it doesn’t make any sense that you would crack down on seat belts but then let the much, much, more dangerous activity be perfectly legal. It’d be like making weed illegal but legalizing and encouraging pharmaceutical companies to push dangerous and addictive opioids, that’d be crazy, right?
Imagine getting pulled over by a police office on a motorcycle and given a fine for not wearing a seat belt, the irony would be pretty funny at least.
My question is, how does a convertible differ from a motorcycle? Is it just the windshield that makes them different? There are 3-wheeled and 4-wheeled motorcycles after all.
If I got pulled over in a convertible for not wearing a seat belt, which I wouldn’t, because I drive a classic hard-topped American Muscle car (Nissan Sentra 2011, nbd); but if I did, I’d just argue that I’m driving a motorcycle and it’s perfectly legal not to wear a seat belt. What would be their response to that? I’m sure someone has taken this to court at some point.
This is why I wish I became a lawyer. I’d be that person suing over a $15 seat belt ticket. I would love the ability to file spite lawsuits. Unfortunately, though I would never be able to pass the bar, there is way too much reading (did I mention this is a Book Blog/Podcast site)?
Anyway, that was really my biggest complaint, obviously there is a whole other can of worms about these type of laws providing police officers ‘probable cause’ to pull anyone over. Or that adding more traffic laws and fines mostly impacts poorer demographics and ultimately these laws aren’t enough of a deterrent anyway (see: speeding). But I don’t have the knowledge or nuance to argue those finer points (which can be said for just about anything I write on this site).
In conclusion, don’t be an idiot, wear your seat belt, but if you get pulled over for not wearing one, just say you’re driving a motorcycle, and write in and let us know how that goes.
