Safe From Ourselves
Seatbelts save lives and I do not dispute that. But the issue of legally requiring them be worn is isn’t about safety. Rather it is about control and probable cause.
When the State of Indiana first managed to pass the seatbelt requirements many concessions had to be made to get enough support. The main concession was that the police could not pull over a vehicle soley to check for a seatbelt violation. The original legislation actually went so far as to prevent police from pulling over and ticketing drivers where the officer could see the driver was not wearing their belt but had committed no other violation that could warrant a stop.
The other concession that I vividly remember was the truck exemption. I don’t recall which group fought for this one but it was likely a farmer interest group. Indiana is so densely populated in many areas that family and corporate farms are often divided one or more times by public roads.
In the last several years the legislate-safety-because-we-know-better crowd in Indiana has since whittled these original consessions. If an officer sees you’re not wearing your seatbelt now you can be pulled over and ticketed for no other reason. And while you’re pulled over something the officer may see, or “suspect” based on your behavious, provides enough additional probably cause to search the vehicle.
And after years of the police ignoring the law and ticketing SUV drivers (with truck plates) the Indiana courts finally determined that an SUV with a truck plate is exempt from the seatbelt law. Some don’t understand why this bothers me but it is really simple. If the BMV says it is a truck, if the weight you haul dictates you buy truck plates and pay truck excise, it is a TRUCK. But some police officers and agencies were too stupid to figure this out without the help of the courts! Anyway the push is on to amend the law to add trucks.
Therefore it is with this history under my belt that I say to Florida don’t let them do it. It is only the next step in the progression of userpation of your rights to determine your own fate.
Maybe if the fact that driver one in vehicle one was wearing a seatbelt actually saved the life of driver two in vehicle two I’d reconsider. But that is not the case. When I drive 120+ miles a day on the interstate and see one or two patrol cars a week I think I have found the problem. Much less money was spent on law enforcement 20 years ago but I couldn’t go to get milk at the local store without passing at least one.