Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sir, you're not gonna give me a seatbelt ticket today are you, I just got one yesterday

In agreement here.

Depends. I have my own criteria for different offenses. Take speeding unless you're on a residential street, i won't stop you for less than ten over, and won't write you for less than 15 over. While i have seen the Stats, and studies. I don't agree with forced seatbelt use. And being that we are a secondary offense state( meaning we can't stop based on the no seatbelt), i generally don't worry about seatbelts often. But this guy was almost bragging that he got a ticket yesterday for no seatbelt on the same road.

It's not important work to me it's 6 hours of overtime for the next 3 days

Thank you for the response.

It is all about public safety and giving officers more opportunities to demonstrate dominance over civilians.

That is what our lying azz lawmakers in Arkansas promised us when they were trying to sell the idea of a seat belt law. Less than a year before it was changed to a primary offense. All about income. miles

Ours has been a secondary offense for as long as I can remember.

Hell, aside from Dui arrests, and Narcotics arrests incidental to stops. This was the first traffic ticket i've written in 8 months.

Besides the obvious advantage a person has when wearing a seatbelt from a personal safety standpoint, keeping 150-250 pound humans from becoming projectiles in a sudden change of speed or direction seems to be without many downsides. Perhaps the law should only be enforced when there is more than one soul aboard?

All I ever here is "he would have been dead if he hadn't been wearing a seatbelt" Last I checked dead guys don't cost much in medical expenses.

But, I must thank you so very much for protecting morons who are to stupid to protect themselves from themselves. I mean what would we do without all those imbeciles ? ... Prosper? yeah right...

Yep, too much money sitting there to let it fly through the windshield. No difference between a cattleman keeping his cattle fenced and the police out checking to make sure the "fence" doesn't have any breaks in it.

First they write seatbelt laws and the next thing you know they'll be telling business owners that they can't allow smoking on their property.

Oh wait, never mind.

Nothing but government control. We used to be a land of the free.

For the record, I can't stand cigarette smoke, but I think the market should dictate what businesses thrive and what ones fail.

I remember the time I got cited for not wearing a seatbelt, when I was actually wearing a seatbelt, couldn't figure out what the hell I was being stopped for, and when he approached me and said "I stopped you for not wearing your seatbelt". Me, "your kidding right?"
Of course I had my belt on while he was talking to me and the only wiggling around I did was to get my registration and proof of insurance out of the center console.
I'm absolutely sure he assumed I snuck the belt on while I was pulling over, of course the judge didn't believe me either, not sure what possessed me to think he would.

I wish US police would do drifting like that. Most travel at a high enough speed to do it and it would be so cool to see them out sliding around in traffic like that.

Were I still a cop, I'd never write another traffic ticket. Long ago, fines ceased being a deterrent to bad driving and became a sneaky, back door revenue generating scheme (euphemism for tax). The base fine for a seatbelt cite used to be 25 bucks. And that's what it should be. Now a hapless motorist pays the base fine and at least another 100 bucks for assessments including court security. I've recently heard that in CA, a red light cite is over 400 bucks. That's legal extortion. The reality is cited motorists are forced to underwrite politicians' projects that they use to get reelected.

That BS about increased insurance premiums and medical costs is BS. It's Kool-Aid stuff. Neither have gone down. They've gone up along with revenue generating schemes.

I'd get behind a ballot initiative that would cap ALL first traffic infractions at 50 bucks, period. No BS penalty assessments. And all first time traffic misdemeanors at 500 bucks, period. Since Americans are allegedly innocent until proven guilty, court trials would be set at a reasonable date and time convenient for the alleged violator, and the motorist can plead not guilty over the 'net using the cite number. That way he doesn't have to miss two days' work to fight a cite.

Finally, and as other posters have indicated, this is not a nanny state. We don't need government to protect us from ourselves.

gitem,

My criteria for a traffic stop was dirt bag status. I used infractions as a means to stop bad guys and, hopefully, take them to jail for doing bad things. If I made a mistake and the driver was not a criminal, I would tell them of the traffic violation and thank them for their cooperation. A driver would have had to have done something that could have caused an accident and hurt others before I'd cite 'em. But then again, my big boss emphasized keeping his jurisdiction safe from criminals. He didn't much care about traffic violators. He hated dopers and wanted them in jail. I didn't care for thieves (all heroin addicts are thieves), robbers and criminals who prey upon innocent people, and I wanted them in jail. I couldn't care less about seal belts, rolling through stop signs, etc.

Traffic cites do nothing more that piss off good people. Drivers who knew they really effed up by almost causing an accident and hurting others rarely, if ever, complained.

Since nothing anyone does is in a vacuum, that logic can be used to outlaw absolutely anything. If you accept that rationalization as valid (I don't) then chocolate cake and ice cream should certainly be illegal because obesity costs much more in medical expenses than not wearing seatbelts ever will. The argument that "it might cost taxpayers money or raise insurance premiums" can be used to justify government control of every part of your life if you stretch it far enough. That's why it's a BS argument.

Crow hunter,

Government already controls every part of our lives. We NEED to greatly reduce the scope of government.

look closely, the controls are already in every facet of our lives.

I fought the helmet law, I fought the seat belt law, but like a good little drone I complied when they were passed. I am here today because I wore my seat belt. no doubt about it. but I still hate the concept of being forced to do it.

You're right where you belong. Stay there because it's illegal to pull someone over for a seat belt violation here in ID.

Oops,,, that was for Gitem, not eyeball.