Posted on 05/26/2006 9:23:51 AM PDT by WKB
Southaven - Not wearing a seatbelt will soon be enough to get you pulled over by police or state troopers in Mississippi. Saturday the state's new primary offense seat belt law goes into effect.
Right now the Mississippi has a secondary offense seat belt law. That means officers need another reason, like speeding, to pull you over. It's only after you pulled over that officers are allowed to ticket you for not buckling up.
Law enforcement officers can also pull a driver over if they notice that his front seat passenger or anyone in the vehicle is not wearing a seat belt.
Law enforcement officers throughout the mid south plan to beef up their patrols over the long holiday weekend. Troopers in Mississippi plan to set up road blocks in several parts of the state to check for seat belt use.
Mississippi is the 23rd state where officers can pull over a driver for not wear a seat belt. Tennessee passed a primary seat belt law back in 2004.
The new law in Mississippi carries a maximum fine of 25 dollars per vehicle.
I really hate this "Click-it or Ticket" campaign. I always wear a seatbelt - I just hate being threatened by Big Brother. Maybe if they threatened all the illegals pouring over the border like they do their own citizens they'd stay home.
Exactly how I feel Leatherneck.
I don't either. I only tend to put them on for long travel, and/or bad weather. You know, when the risk actually goes UP and isn't just .0006%.
The benefit of being able to wheel about and look at what's going on behind you is worth the "cost" of not having a belt on. (I actually LOOK behind me; I don't use just MIRRORS like the idiots who amble into my path thanks to their blind spot. Boy does that peeve me!)
Good point.
I think it's frustration, almost -
"we can't catch (and KEEP) the real criminals, so we'll pick on the Joe Schmoes so we can get money and feel useful".
Another stupid law; that have to install handicapped spaces in the local gym parking lot.
If they were serious about fitness and the war on fat they should build a series of touch towers within 2 miles of every residence and have a detector that calls home every time a resident swipes his I.D. card through a reader on the tower pole.
By the time the residents have walked or run down to the pole and back, they will be too tired to get in their car and look for the closest parking spot at the local ice cream parlor.
bttt
That makes as much sense as that disclaimer on the new birth control pill that cautions users that taking the pill will not prevent the risk of catching AIDS or other STDs.
Good Law or Just Big Brother
Nonsense; your insurance costs are driven by ordinary inflation more than by driver habits which are obviously not about to change anytime soon.
Nanny laws for citizens and NO laws for illegals. I agree with you only I will never obey the seatbelt law. It is my business if I buckle up or not. That argument about other people's responsibility if I am in an accident is just BS and I don't even care. What about mountain climbers who want to be saved in emergencies and boats during storms? Do these people pay for the cost of their enjoyment? Ain't no different as far as I am concerned.
Boy you hit a hot button on #2. I am in a battle right now costing me $2,000 more in legal fees to get a general contractor and a sub-contractor to fix my roof after they screwed it up big time. Both admit the problem was theirs but the sub placed a lien on my house and threaten with his lower than whale poop lawyers to foreclose. Even though I am assured to win, unless the Senate grants contractor amnesty, I have to pay $2,000+ to get them to do it right. Boy a shot gun shell is so much cheaper. I just don't know who to fire it at. The contractors or the lawyers. Hell, buy 2 their cheap.
You might think you're being facetious - but you are right. Anytime some idiot who doesn't wear a seatbelt gets in an accident, then the rest of us have to pay (either through higher insurance premiums or taxes for Medicaid/Medicare) to keep their sorry brain-dead ass alive. Or we have to pay for extensive medical treatments or expensive rehab - etc.
I think that anyone in a car accident who wasn't wearing their seatbelt (or a motorcycle accident with no helmet) should give up any rights to insurance-paid or taxpayer-paid health benefits.
Obviously some people ARE stupid enough not to wear seatbelts without being forced to by someone. (And who else would that "someone" be - if not the government?)
The dangerous flying passenger is far less frequent than the occasional appearance of Jesus on a dirty window pane; however, it has become a legend.
Maybe a good little hall monitor like you.
For some time,we've had a seat belt law that says that cops can't *stop* you because you're not wearing your belt,but if you're stopped for something else (broken tail light,for example) they can cite you for not being belted as well as the broken light.
What was killed was a bill to give cops the right to stop you simply for not being belted which is what's called a "primary" seat belt law.
People get hurt with seatbelts as well, that's not a valid argument.
The truth is the people in the back seat are the one's that should be required to wear them, some countries do because of the head/neck injuries sustained by front seat passengers during collisions.
People who think these types of laws "don't affect anyone else" are idiots. When we all have to pay for your stupidity - then it does affect us all.
We have a government to enforce societal rules, so the rest of us don't have to.
Do you believe we might not need a "good little hall monitor" to stop people from murdering each other? Or from stealing from each other? Or from burning each other's house down?
Or should maybe the government do the job.
Isn't that why it exists?
Or maybe you are one of these people who think the "evil government" should not do any of these things?
If so, I bet you'd change your tune if your house was on fire and you wanted the fire department to come and put it out.
Gotta stop them international criminals, yezzir!
(Psssst! Besides, it brings in a lot of revenue.)
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