Posted on 05/15/2006 2:20:53 AM PDT by mathprof
Seat belt use is reaching record levels, so just who are the holdouts who fail to buckle up? Often they are young men who live in rural areas and drive pickups, the government says.
About 48 million people do not regularly put on seat belts when they are on the road, a figure the government's highway safety agency hopes to lower with an annual public education campaign ahead of the summer driving season.
The "Click It or Ticket" campaign involves checkpoints, patrols and advertisements to help enforce seat belt laws. It runs from May 22 through June 4.
The latest report on seat belt use by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says men account for 65 percent of the more than 31,000 people killed each year in passenger vehicles.
The report being released Monday found:
_58 percent of those killed who were not wearing a seat belt crashed along rural roads.
_in crashes involving pickup trucks, about seven in 10 people who died were unbelted.
_more than six in 10 people age 8-44 who were killed inside a passenger vehicle were not buckled up.
The agency said that lap and shoulder safety belts reduce the risk of death for those in the front seat of passenger cars by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injuries by 50 percent.
The fatality risk for front-seat motorists in sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans who wear seat belts is reduced by 60 percent; moderate-to-critical injuries by 65 percent.
The public education campaign is using $31 million in state and federal grants for national and state ads that seek to attract young drivers who watch sporting events such as NASCAR and baseball.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
nannystate ping
Hmmmm...
I wonder what a law enforcement officer would say if he pulled me over...
http://public.fotki.com/VictorySpeedway/1/57_pontiac-
There is one seatbelt in the car - it's in the middle of the back seat. I put it there for our son's baby seat.
He's 14 now, and will ride up front when I take the car out for its first shakedown cruise in 12 years. That'll happen in a month or so...
(Sorry 'bout the poor picture quality. I need to work on my photo editing skills. They're awful.)
(Pete's Wife's Husband)
****sigh****
I need to work on a few other skills, too.
Just click on the "'57 Pontiac" link thingie.
Cool car, but the link to the picture was slightly wrong. It should be:
http://public.fotki.com/VictorySpeedway/1/57_pontiac-1/petespontiac.html
Nice! My first car was a 57 Starchief. Lots of great tales about that 347!
Just drape it over your left shoulder.
Lately the idiot cops are using any excuse (like 2 MPH over the speed limit) to stop you because they can't stop you for not wearing a seatbelt.
Stop the seatbelt Nazis !
BUMP
I've done alot of reading about that early Pontiac V-8. In those days, they built bulletproof engines, especially the valve train.
My '57 has only 60,000 (or so) original miles. When I bought it, it had been idle for 11 years. It started, but it belched white smoke. Some Marvel Mystery Oil cured the smoke and the clattering of the hydraulic lifters.
It's coming out of yet another 11-year hibernation, and I'm hoping for the same results.
It should hit the road in another month or so. It'll have new brakes from the drums to the pedal, a rebuilt carburetor, and a fresh coat of satin black primer.
It's no show car, but it sure is fun on Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday afternoons!
Hmmm... premium fuel runs about $3.25 / gal.
Well, it'll be fun on Friday nights, anyway.
Thank you!
We'll also be checking for cholesterol levels, secondary smoke ( or its residue ), scales and tape measures to log your childrens stats and make sure they have a proper safety seat & as a complimentary service will check to make sure your socks match too.
You see as law enforcement officers we really have nothing better to do.
Wheres my Nanny?....oh here she comes ...its the state.
The "Click It or Ticket" campaign involves checkpoints, patrols and advertisements to help enforce seat belt laws. It runs from May 22 through June 4.Leaving aside the question of whether or not the government has any business requiring seat-belt use, the checkpoints are a classic case of wasting time and money by appearing to be "doing something".
Once the word gets out people will avoid the are like they do "DUI checkpoints", the locations of which are known in every bar within a five mile radius within fifteen minutes of their setup.
Meanwhile, all the other roads in town are unpatrolled.
-Eric
I think seatbelts are good to wear because I almost flew out of the drivers seat when I was younger and had to make a quick stop at a bad driveway.
But no way should the cops or the government tell me I have to wear one.
Here in PA they have to stop you for something else to ticket you for the belt, but down south in Maryland I hear "click it or ticket" spots on radio stations. They have a more Soviet tradition down there (Nanny state).
Partly, this is also about insurance companies that pay off politicians to make us get auto insurance and use seat belts to avoid high costs to them (insurance companies) from damage, death and injuries.
I believe they, among the other nanny groups, lobbied for those laws.
I think seatbelts are good to wear because I almost flew out of the drivers seat when I was younger and had to make a quick stop at a bad driveway.
But no way should the cops or the government tell me I have to wear one.
Here in PA they have to stop you for something else to ticket you for the belt, but down south in Maryland I hear "click it or ticket" spots on radio stations. They have a more Soviet tradition down there (Nanny state).
Partly, this is also about insurance companies that pay off politicians to make us get auto insurance and use seat belts to avoid high costs to them (insurance companies) from damage, death and injuries.
I believe they, among the other nanny groups, lobbied for those laws.
The proven solution for a host of lubricating issues!
Wow! Deja Vue time. Used to read about Marvel Mystery Oil in comic books.
Some Marvel Mystery Oil cured the smoke and the clattering of the hydraulic lifters.
Anyone who knows about, and uses, MM oil is A-OK in my book... that's "good stuff!"
Now ( donning firesuit ), on to seatbelts?
Besides driving Newman's wrecker ( a 1952 Ford boom truck with a sling ) back in the seventies, I ran John's Wrecker Service here from 1991-1999.
Seatbelts improve your odds in most wrecks- but they aren't a cure all. In roughly 3 out of 4 wrecks, wearing a seatbelt will either save your life, or lessen the extent of injury.
Note when you read that, they don't say you will survive those injuries- just that you will be mangled less. In a minority of crashes, you may have better odds if you are thrown clear. But you still might get killed.
What I'd really like to see is the Left's magic choice word applied-- give the driver the facts, and let them decide which side of the risk equation, belted vs. unbelted, they want to try their luck at.
IMO, seatbelt laws are about intimidation, and revenue, and have little to do with safety.
If the cop that pulls us over isn't wearing his seat belt, do we get to write a ticket for him or does it just cancel out our ticker.
I haven't worn my belt since the 'click it or ticket' program came to PA. I heard the commercial 'warning' us and undid the belt and haven't put it on since.
Screw them.
Here you see law enforcement in action. We have 25 million illegal hispanics invading us and the armed bureaucrats in law enforcement are concentrating on seat belt enforcement. Anyone who believes that the government represents them is living in a dream world (or is part of the 30+ million government employees at all levels of government)
Henry county GA has a gang problem or at least so it would seem when they indite 18 "young men" for a shooting that killed a 3 yeal old. Driving through Henry county last week I was lasered twice and radared twice to check my speed. It's easy to see the leos are concentrating on what their real role is - rasing revenue for the government. Seat belt is the same thing - revenue for the government
They look, nod their head and wave me through.
Trying to enforce seatbelt laws are a joke, the only time they should stop a vehicle for such an infraction is when adults don't buckle up the kids.
For the most part the Insurance Industry could give a crap if you wear your seatbelt or not, they got their way by making airbags mandatory.
By far the largest costs (On average) the insurance companies had prior to airbags was the cost of cosmetic reconstruction, airbags reduced these costs considerably.
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