Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Posted on 01/31/2006 3:16:44 AM PST by WKB
It appears the new seat belt bill will be signed into law. It would allow officers to pull you over and ticket you, simply for not being buckled up.
Governor Haley Barbour announced today he will sign the bill. The penalty is a maximum fine of 25 dollars. It applies to both front seat passengers and children between 4 and 8 years old, sitting anywhere in the car.
The bill was introduced in the house. The senate passed it on friday
Mississippi PIng
Nice to see Haley Barbour bending over for insurance companies. This has nothing to do with safety.
Make up your mind, please.
I'm sure there is something to do with federal highway funds being held back if this is not done.
Casinos in Miss will now be required to have seatbelts on the chairs next to slot machines...
Wearing seat belts are much safer than not wearing seat belts IMHO. But it's not everyone's opinion and the government should stay out of this area of personal liberty. The government's role is not to protect me from myself.
I'm sure there is something to do with federal highway funds being held back if this is not done.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1566773/posts
Bill To Strengthen MS Seat Belt Law Going To Gov.(snip to further harass African-American drivers)
WLOX ^ | 1-27-06
Posted on 01/28/2006 8:27:57 AM CST by WKB
Carol Johns of Pascagoula says she doesn't need a state law to make her wear a seat belt. But, she acknowledges a law might have helped persuade her to buckle up years ago when she was a teenager learning to drive.
"Whether we realize it or not, young people have a lot of respect for what the law says,'' said Johns, who's 55 and says she has only been wearing a seat belt regularly for three years.
Mississippi could be on the verge of strengthening its seat belt law from a secondary offense to a primary one, meaning a law enforcement officer could pull over a vehicle simply if he thinks the driver or a front-seat passenger is not wearing a seat belt.
The Senate on Friday passed the final version of a primary-offense seat belt bill with a maximum fine of $25 per vehicle.
Under current state law, an officer can issue a ticket for failure to wear a seat belt - but the officer must have another reason, such as speeding or a missing tail light, to pull over the vehicle.
If Gov. Haley Barbour signs the bill, it would become law on May 27, the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend.
Barbour spokesman Pete Smith said "the governor generally supports the issue'' but wants to study the bill before saying whether he'll sign it.
Primary-offense seat belt bills have been proposed for years in Mississippi and have failed amid arguments about individual rights. This year, apparently, it was crunch time: Many lawmakers say they voted for the bill because Mississippi could get about $8 million in federal highway safety money if the state has a primary-offense seat belt law.
"I voted for it, but I think it's too much government,'' said Sen. Terry Brown, R-Columbus. "I hate to give up that federal highway money.''
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, D-Brookhaven, has voted for primary-offense bills for years.
"My husband says I don't even go to the mailbox without seat belts,'' said Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer whose mailbox is a quarter mile from her home.
The bill passed the Senate with only four opposing votes. It cleared the House on Jan. 12, with some members arguing that a primary-offense law could be abused by law officers with a grudge.
Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson said he still has those concerns.
"Our fear in making seat belts a primary offense is that it will give some bad apples an opportunity to further harass African-American drivers,'' Johnson said Friday.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta released a study in December showing that Mississippi in 2005 had the lowest seat belt usage rate of any state, at 60.8 percent. Hawaii had the highest rate, at 95.3 percent. The study was conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
A federal law enacted last August made $498 million available to states over the next four years. To qualify for part of the money, a state has to either enact a primary-offense seat belt law or have at least an 85 percent seat belt usage rate, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The bill is House Bill 409.
If it has to do with insurance companies, as you say, then it has to do with safety...i.e. reduced risk of injury, thus less cost for the insurance companies.
I'm not advocating for the law, I'm just saying that your statement wasn't logical.
"Wearing seat belts are much safer than not wearing seat belts IMHO" - That's not the point, ofcourse it's safer wearing a seat belt. This is about insurance companies and cops looking to get their hand deeper in to your pocket book.
This is a great point and I wish more leaders would make this point. It also puts undue burden on the poor and gives cops more reasons to pull people over to search the vehicles. It can cause otherwise law abiding people to become criminals. Passing laws intended to raise revenue by finding a reason to fine the citizen makes me sick.
this is the bottom line: PS I agree with you about the personal freedom thing but money talks and bullsh*t walks.
"voted for the bill because Mississippi could get about $8 million in federal highway safety money if the state has a primary-offense seat belt law.
"I voted for it, but I think it's too much government,'' said Sen. Terry Brown, R-Columbus. "I hate to give up that federal highway money.''"
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
[If it has to do with insurance companies, as you say, then it has to do with safety...i.e. reduced risk of injury, thus less cost for the insurance companies.]
Insurance companies don't have to raise premiums now so I am not paying for the schmucks who don't buckle up and get smashed up as a result.
I often say on FR that resisting common sense laws like this, that are becoming standard fare around the world, does not help the cause of conservatism, but hurts it. Russia is the only country I know without seat belt laws now.
It is embarrassing that it took Jimmy Carter to ban asbestos. That was a no-brainer.
Around the world, smoking is being banned in workplaces, to include bars where bartenders and waitresses work. Also a common sense no-brainer. Why should an insurance company grant life insurance to a waitress who would spend the next 20 years working in a smoky bar?
Casinos in Miss will now be required to have seatbelts on the chairs next to slot machines...
Winning or losing can cause great stress on the heart
and we wouldn't want people falling and hurting themselves.
[Why should an insurance company grant life insurance to a waitress who would spend the next 20 years working in a smoky bar?]
More to the point, why should a waitress who needs to keep her job to feed her kids...not have the right to suddenly say to her boss "I've decided I want a healthy work environment to include fresh air?" We all know that, without laws in place, her boss would fire her for wanting fresh air on the job. Thus the laws, which are rolling over the USA and the world like a tidal wave since 2004, and are unstoppable.
Resistance to common sense laws really is futile.
It's getting worse here. A friend of mine was recently pulled over and ticketed $250 for having a tire the >local< officer thought wouldn't meet the state inspection. Didn't matter that she was getting a new inspection in a week or so. Cop made here go get new tires then take time off to meet him and prove she had replaced them. To be fair he DID rip that ticket up - reluctantly.
During the same stop he noted her address on her insurance card, her license and the car registration didn't match. She had just moved, got her license change d but the registration wasn't back yet. Plus her insurance was kept under a group plan at her family's address so it's always different. (I do the same with mine. We keep our cars insured under a group plan at our farm 90 miles north of Pittsburgh.)
That cost here another hundred which the cop DIDN'T offer to tear up.
After the cop ripped up her ticket on the tire, she said "Thank You" as he turned to leave. He spun around and got jumpin ugly with "Whaddy mean by that?" I found out about htat because my wife happened to be walking by when it happened and she was the one who told me about it.
BTW is it any suprise that the town where the tickets are being handed out is facing HUGE sewer recosntruction, paving and other bills?
prisoner6
These laws are designed to extort money from the citizen and the feds extort it from the states by withholding tax money that is already theirs to begin with.It also gives the police an excuse to pull over people to make illegal searches. It also oppresses those who are poor and could have the effect of making criminals out of people who have no money to pay.
Do you pay for the poor shmuck who died as a result of wearing his seat belt?
Most countries drinking age is 18 too but the feds have used the same extortion methods to force drinking age uniformity on the States.
Perhaps I need to look harder at the Libertarian Party.
"Resistance is futile" says GermanBusiness
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