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Opinion:
Seat belt use is a personal choice and should not be legislated. It affects no one but me.
Fact:
- Since 1986, Minnesota has had a mandatory seat belt use law. Min. Stat. 169.686 requires that a fastened seat belt be worn by: 1) the driver; 2) a passenger riding in the front seat; and 3) a passenger riding in any seat of a passenger vehicle who is older than three but younger than 11 years of age. Nowhere does the law say that wearing a seat belt is optional.
- When you choose not to wear your seat belt, you do affect other people. For instance:
—If you are unbelted during a crash, your body can become a lethal flying object to the other occupants in the vehicle. You can hurt other people and more severely injure yourself.
- Americans are paying $26 billion a year in injury-related costs for people who don't wear seat belts. Crash victims who are not wearing their seat belts have medical bills that are 50% higher than crash victims who wear seat belts. On average, those injured pay for 26% of these costs. The remaining 74% is paid for by "society" - our government, health care providers, us! That comes out of everyone's pockets in the form of taxes, insurance premiums, etc.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics published a study that showed a direct correlation between driver seat belt use and child restraint use. When a driver buckles up, child passengers are restrained 87% of the time. However, when a driver chooses not to buckle up, children are restrained only 24% of the time.
Opinion:
Forcing me to wear my seat belt is an infringement on my constitutional rights.
Fact:
- Driving on public roads is a privilege, not a right, and therefore it can be regulated.
- Requiring seat belt use is no more an infringement on your rights than being required to turn on your headlights or use turn signals or stop at stop signs. Upgrading Minnesota's seat belt law to universal standard enforcement won't create a new law. It will simply allow law enforcement officers to enforce the seat belt law just like they do any other traffic law.
- The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in the case of People vs Kohrig in 1986 that seat belt laws are constitutional. The court said, "A law whose aim is to reduce the private and public costs resulting from injuries and deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents is within the police power of the State. From the moment of injury, society picks the person up off the highway; delivers him to a municipal hospital and municipal doctors; provides him with unemployment compensation if, after recovery, he cannot replace his lost job, and if the injury causes permanent disability, may assume the responsibility for his and his family's continued subsistence. The law also promotes the economic welfare of the state by reducing the public costs associated with serious injuries and deaths caused by automobile accidents. Safety belt legislation will clearly save money. We are not talking about somebody's individual decision to end up in a car crash and find him or herself in a hospital for 20 years with that individual paying the bill. It's the taxpayers that are going to be paying those bills."
Contact the Minnesota Seat Belt Coalition by calling 651-228-7304 or 1-800-444-9150 x 304 or by e-mail at
msc@minnesotasafetycouncil.org.
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