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Seat belts debated The state has rejected them as too costly to place on school buses By Alexandre Da Silva adasilva@starbulletin.com The crash of a public school bus carrying Kahuku High water polo players Thursday is renewing the debate of whether students should buckle up. The Legislature will likely consider a resolution next week to urge the Board of Education to require seat belts in school buses, said state Rep. Marilyn Lee, vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee. Historically, calls to install the restraints have failed, here and nationally, largely because of the cost to retrofit school buses, which...

If it is indeed true, as George Bernard Shaw commented, that democracy ensures we get the government we deserve, then I have little sympathy for my neighbors who whine about the smoking ban as they puff their Camel filters in the parking lot outside the bowling alley in the freezing February rain. Besides -- I like to point out -- we voted for the shysters and party hacks who passed the ban. Or -- more likely -- we failed to vote at all. I then call attention to the fact that right next door in Missouri, where the Republican Party...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — Authorities say four students have been killed in a school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota. Minnesota State Patrol Lieutenant Mark Peterson says the students died when their Lakeview School bus was hit by a van this afternoon on a highway near Cottonwood, about 2 hours southwest of Minneapolis. The bus then collided with a pickup and tipped on its side. • Click here for photos. The victims weren't immediately identified, and their ages weren't immediately given. At least 14 people were hurt. The school bus was carrying 40 people at the time. The Marshall Independent reported that...

TRENTON, N.J. — It will be agonizing, emotional and draining. Most of all, it will be painful. New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine faces months of intensive therapy to recover from serious injuries suffered in an April 12 crash on the Garden State Parkway. "It is a grueling course that he's going to go through," said Kathleen O'Donnell, an inpatient rehabilitation manager at Atlantic Health, which operates several northern New Jersey health facilities. "My heart goes out to him." Corzine has been in intensive care since breaking 11 ribs, his sternum, a leg, his collarbone and a vertebra in the...

(AP) CAMDEN, N.J. -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine was in too much pain to breathe without a ventilator, doctors said Wednesday, as he approached a week in an intensive care unit following an April 12 car crash. An anesthesiologist at Cooper University Hospital inserted catheters near Corzine's 11 broken ribs Wednesday to give him a different type of pain treatment in the hope that would help him breathe completely on his own sooner. When doctors described that procedure Wednesday, it seemed clear that Corzine, a one-time Marine they described as a "pretty tough guy," was not likely have a miraculously...

TRENTON, N.J. - Last year, New Jersey law officers ticketed 271,182 people for not wearing seat belts in violation of state law. This year, one will stand out: Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who was critically injured in an automobile accident last week. David Wald, spokesman for state Attorney General Stuart Rabner, wouldn't say why state police assigned to protect the governor didn't insist Corzine obey the seat belt law. "As always, we urge all drivers and passengers to wear seat belts," Wald said. Corzine, 60, broke multiple bones in the wreck and remains hospitalized in intensive care, breathing with the...

New Jersey's Governor Remains in Critical Condition and Scheduled to Undergo More Surgery CAMDEN, N.J. Apr 16, 2007 (AP)— Gov. Jon S. Corzine faces more surgery on his broken leg, the third operation he's needed since an auto crash left him in critical condition. Doctors at Cooper University Hospital said the surgery scheduled for Monday will be similar to one they performed Saturday, when they cleaned a 6-inch wound in his left thigh. On Sunday, he underwent a procedure to remove fluid that had collected outside his left lung. The procedure, which lasted less than 15 minutes, is common for...

Never mind the War on Terror, Crime, Corruption, or anything else ! The Governor of NJ didn't fasten his seatbelt !!!

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - April 13, 2007 - Gov. Jon S. Corzine was apparently not wearing his seat belt as required by law when his official SUV crashed into a guard rail, leaving the governor hospitalized in critical condition, two spokesmen said Friday. A state trooper was at the wheel and the governor was sitting as usual in the front passenger seat when the SUV slammed into a guard rail Thursday night, authorities said. Corzine broke a leg, his breastbone, 12 ribs and a vertebra. Corzine, 60, was sedated and on a breathing tube, and a doctor who helped treat...

News tips & feedbackHouse passes seatbelt bill By TOM FAHEY State House Bureau Chief Friday, Apr. 6, 2007 CONCORD – The New Hampshire House yesterday passed a mandatory seatbelt bill, requiring anyone in a moving car to be belted. The bill, which passed 153-140, would allow a police officer to stop and ticket anyone for driving without a seatbelt, or for having an unbelted passenger. The offense carries a $50 fine for a first offense, $100 for a second offense. New Hampshire is the last in the country without a law requiring all adults to wear a seatbelt. It also...

> Freep Friends > > Saturdayday morning, circa 1000 hours, I received a call from a stranger > informing me that my #3 daughter was involved in a "very serious > accident". > > My world exploded! > > Turns out my daughter was struck by another driver as she crossed a > major suburban parkway. The other driver ran a red-light and struck my > daughter. > > She was driving our family SUV (Saturn Vue) and was struck on the > driver side, right between the doors ("on the pillar"). The car that > struck her was traveling...

State legislators have gone home. That's a good thing.The session began in May with much hope that with better economic times, lawmakers would seize the opportunity to give taxpayers a much-needed break and repeal the "temporary" taxes enacted during the 2001 recession. Many hoped that the General Assembly would also seize the opportunity to adopt a constitutional amendment protecting property owners from eminent domain abuse. Instead, the General Assembly made half-hearted attempts to appease taxpayers and property owners. Lawmakers trimmed back those tax increases, but wouldn't eliminate them altogether. As far as protecting property, the General Assembly repealed legislation that...

Virginia's secretary of transportation sent out a letter announcing the state's annual "Click It or Ticket" campaign May 22 through June 4. I responded to the secretary of transportation with my own letter that in part reads: "Mr. Secretary: This is an example of the disgusting abuse of state power. Each of us owns himself, and it follows that we should have the liberty to take risks with our own lives but not that of others. That means it's a legitimate use of state power to mandate that cars have working brakes because if my car has poorly functioning brakes,...

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...

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

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...

The number of people who have died on South Carolina roads so far this year hit 1,011 as of late Thursday. But today, the state’s primary seat belt law goes into effect. Officials hope it will lead to a reduction in the number of road deaths and injuries. “In this troop alone, we have had a total of 95 fatalities,” said Capt. C. N. Williamson of South Carolina Highway Patrol Troop 7, which includes Orangeburg County. “Sixty-five of the 95 were not wearing a seat belt. At least half would have lived if they had of worn their seat belts.”...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois drivers will have a variety of new rules to follow in 2006 from stricter seat belt regulations for teenagers to fewer chances to keep moving violations off driving records. As of Jan. 1, all minors riding with a motorist under 19 years of age will have to wear safety belts. The proposal is aimed at reducing fatal accidents among teenage drivers, who are more likely to be involved in collisions. “It’s to protect the lives of young people,” said Illinois State Police spokesman Rick Hector. “Teens are more likely to die in car crashes.” Hector said that...

State trooper or panhandler? Drivers fooled By Jennifer Sullivan Seattle Times staff reporter In the three years since state lawmakers gave cops the go-ahead to pull over people for not wearing seat belts, the State Patrol has become creative about spotting scofflaws. But one new approach has raised a few eyebrows — while providing results troopers call impressive. On Saturday, a trooper stood on a street corner in Spanaway, Pierce County, and helped bust 30 people for not wearing their seat belts. The trooper, wearing plain clothes and a cardboard sign around his neck that read "Happy Holidays Buckle Up,"...

The title is, of course, an ancient joke from the vaudeville circuit. It’s an appropriate way to praise, rather than attack, one particular article – and in the process to attack ten thousand others. Here is the lede from “Show Me the Risk!” by Deroy Murdock in NRO (National Review Online) on 19 October 2005: “According to The Archives of Internal Medicine, pharmaceutical companies market a drug that kills some 7,000 Americans annually. These people don’t die instantly, but instead expire after slowly suffering gastrointestinal bleeding. Oddly enough, TV-news producers are ho-hum about this deadly medicine. The Food and Drug...

1929 Duesenberg Crashes Near Ann Arbor, Killing 3POSTED: 9:16 am EDT July 31, 2005 UPDATED: 11:14 am EDT July 31, 2005 SUPERIOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A driver apparently ran a stop sign at an intersection near Ann Arbor and collided with a classic car carrying a family of five, killing two parents and a child, authorities said. The other two children in the 1929 Duesenberg convertible were injured in crash, which happened about 8:10 p.m. Saturday, the Washtenaw County sheriff's office said in a statement Sunday. All five from the Superior Township family were thrown from the Duesenberg, which didn't...

Divers went back into the Grand Calumet River in Gary this morning, searching for a 2-year-old girl who was ejected from a sport-utility vehicle Wednesday night when the SUV struck a guardrail, WGN-Ch. 9 reported. The child, Jatama Greene of Gary, was not in a child-restraining seat and was wearing only a seat belt when the SUV driven by her mother crashed shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday on the Cline Avenue exit ramp from the Indiana Toll Road, authorities said. Jatama was thrown from the vehicle and fell 40 feet into the river, WGN reported. "We have a witness who...

… Having a license to drive means signing a contract to follow the rules of the road. Wearing your seat belt is one of them. If you die because you stubbornly don't buckle up, your death will affect family and friends. I doubt if they are OK with that…

Your children are cute, but if they're not buckled in correctly, they're going to cost you a ticket. Albuquerque police and law enforcement officers around the state say parents of children ages 5 and up are going to be scrutinized more than ever when a new law on child safety seats goes into effect Friday. The current law requires safety restraints for children through age 4 or less than 40 pounds. The new law says children ages 5 or 6 or less than 60 pounds must be protected. Children 7 through 12 also require safety restraints - either a child...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an office within the U.S. Department of Transportation, just finished its annual campaign to get us to wear our seatbelts under a program called "Click It or Ticket." States receive federal subsidies to ticket drivers if they or their passengers are not buckled up.

A woman battling obesity was ticketed for not wearing her seat belt, Local 4 reported. Yvonne Monger has a blood-clotting disease that has contributed to her weight problems, Local 4 reported. Monger e-mailed ClickOnDetroit.com to say that she has tried to wear a seat belt, but has trouble getting it to fit around her. Monger said she's been pulled over by police in the past for not wearing a seat belt, but had never been ticketed until the most recent stop, the station reported. "There's other obese people out here also," said Monger. "What are we supposed to do? Not...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Governor Robert Ehrlich has directed the state police to cease using night vision gear to enforce the state's seat belt laws. State police will continue to enforce the laws, but won't use the special goggles that were tested for the first and only time last Wednesday night in Montgomery County. The governor got plenty of complaints about the practice. His spokeswoman, Shareese DeLeaver, says Ehrlich doesn't usually support Big Brother tactics when it comes to law enforcement. State police spokesman Greg Shipley says the night-vision equipment was borrowed from the military and has already been returned....

Check the map! Are we in Vermont yet?By SHAWNE K. WICKHAMSunday News Staff Jeannie Johnson actually groaned aloud when she heard they had to cut down New Hampshire trees for two Vermont billboards that are quickly becoming infamous. The story just keeps getting worse. Johnson is the coordinator of the governor’s highway safety program in Vermont. That agency paid thousands of dollars to put up two billboards in the middle of New Hampshire that have been turning heads and sparking conversations. Trees were cleared to provide a view of a new billboard on I-293 promoting seatbelt use in Vermont. (BOB...

Very powerful (not gory) and extremely effective short video of the importance of teens and young adults wearing (or anyone)seat belts. I think this is one of the most important items ever passed along. PLEASE VIEW IT AND FORWARD IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. It MAY SAVE A LIFE. PARTICULARLY those with teens or young adults!!! FORCE YOU KIDS AND THEIR FRIENDS TO WATCH IT IF NEED BE.Much more powerful and effective than any "Be Safe Lecture" could possibly be. It may just well save their lives! LINK: http://kimmershow.com/fileTamer/seatbelts.wmv

Maine's Reform party leadership speaks out. And so, the sleeping lion of third partyism in Maiine is awakening. SEATBELTS, BUDGETS, FUNDRAISERS AND MORE FUNDRAISERS!  2005 Using our Freedoms against us!  By Nelson “Skip” Foley  Dateline: January 2005 – The budget is ok if you look at what is being brought in by state government activities in Maine verses what is already being spent but when you realize the insatiable hunger of increased spending Augusta seems to generate under the Democratic Leadership, the budget is and has been for a number of years in “short fall” mode.  This is a symptom of most...

On 17 September 2004, 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Derek Kieper wrote in the school's newspaper, the Daily Nebraskan: "As laws become increasingly strict for seat belts, fewer people will respond positively by buckling up in response to the laws. There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group." On 4 January 2005, it was reported: "Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died early Tuesday morning when the Ford Explorer he was a passenger...

Yesterday, my daughter was driving her Honda Civic at 50 mph when a Chevy Cavalier traveling 55 mph in the opposite direction suddenly swerved directly into her path. The resulting direct headon collision totalled both cars. Neither my daughter nor her passenger sustained any injuries beyond superficial bruising--today, they're both sore but functioning normally. The other driver suffered a broken leg, and her passenger was unhurt. Both vehicles' airbags deployed, and all four had buckled up. Whatever reason you've concocted for refusing to buckle up really doesn't do justice to your intelligence.

Rummaging through a junk drawer the other day, I ran across a little government pamphlet that says on the back: "This book is valuable. Do not lose it." It is from the United States office of Price Administration and titled, "War Ration Book No. 3." Inside the book are four pages of 48 ration stamps each. Darned if I can remember exactly how these ration stamps were used -- I was just a kid during the Second World War. But, this book has my name on it, so I kept it. No reason. I just did. My childhood wasn't a...

Veteran won't buckle under in fight against seat belt law Daily Herald Reports Posted 7/20/2004 By Burt Constable The military veteran license plate and the bumper sticker noting "Freedom Is Never Free. Thank You, Vets" hinted that this would be no routine traffic ticket for a seat belt violation. "My freedoms and rights are not accidents to me. I fought for them. I carried the bodies, and parts of bodies, of soldiers who fought for them," says a solemn Steve Riedner, veteran of an airlift squadron during the Vietnam War and current seat belt scofflaw. The 55-year-old tool-and-die maker from...

Is there now a primary seat belt law in AZ (one that allows a traffic stop just for the seat belt violation)? My wife keeps insisting DPS has announced this on the radio, but the last I heard about it, the bill to make it so was defeated at the same time that rural speed limits were increased. I looked on AZ government pages, DPS website, and here, and couldn't find any reference at all.

I am trying to figure out how to get a national petition started, to overturn the "Click it or Ticket" laws and its erosion, further, of individual rights. I am curious how many folk consider The "Click it"campaign to be good, and whether it come through legislation, or did it come about by beaurocratic decree? (From the NHTA site: What Impact Have Primary Safety Belt Laws Had? Primary safety belt laws – laws that allow police officers to pull over a driver and issue a safety belt citation without first observing another offense – have had an enormous effect on...

Evening all…I just found out that someone was killed two weeks ago in a car wreck in California.His name was Corey; he was 28 years old; he wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the vehicle.In 1979 my family moved into the house my mother still owns. Among the neighbors, across lots (one walked through our backyard and theirs to get to their back door) are an elderly couple who have lived there all their lives, raised their children there, and frequently baby-sat two of their grandchildren. We befriended this couple and, by extension, their grandkids, who were...

KING COUNTY - By now you have heard of the statewide "Click It or Ticket" campaign. The Washington State Patrol says it's working because it's getting harder to find offenders. "We are very passionate about it primarily because our main mission is to save lives," says WSP Captain Les Young. A new television public service announcement starts airing Monday to remind drivers the new month-long "Click It Or Ticket" campaign starts May 19th. "It's just not a good enough reason to be handing out citations," says seatbelt law opponent Dan Goebel. Goebel is one of the sponsors of Initiative 836...

$10 Fine For Not Wearing Safety Belt POSTED: 9:39 pm CDT May 28, 2004 UPDATED: 10:47 pm CDT May 28, 2004 MADISON, Wis. -- If you're heading out on the highway this weekend - buckle up or pay the price. SURVEY Do you wear a safety belt in the car? Yes No Sometimes Results | Disclaimer Wisconsin is joining other states in a big crackdown on seat belt use. Additional state patrol officers will be watching for all sorts of violations on the road. But when it comes to seat belts, there will be zero tolerance. The biggest seat belt...

EVEN THOUGH ROUGH WINDS do shake the darling buds thereof, I think we can all agree that May is a fabulous month, flush and lusty as the poets say, a time to gather knots of flowers, and buds and garlands gay. It is the month above all of Mother's Day, made doubly so by the decision of the United States government to transform itself for a few weeks every May into a kind of Mom for everybody--your Mom, my Mom, even our Moms' Mom. And this national Mom has a few things she'd like to get settled right here and...

Police plan seat belt crackdown Friday, 21, 2004 BY TOM TOLEN News Staff Reporter In a campaign dubbed "Buckle Up or Pay Up! Click It or Ticket," local police agencies will join forces with others around the state to launch the summer travel season and seat belt compliance efforts. A total of 350 hours will be devoted to the safety belt enforcement initiative by participating agencies. "We'll have extra patrols," said Lt. Joel Allen, Michigan State Police Brighton post commander. Allen said the enforcement zones will be set up at both ends of a blocked off area on busy county...

OLYMPIA – A challenge to a $101 seat-belt ticket could wind up costing Washington state and local government millions of dollars, overturning hundreds of criminal cases and voiding a law safety advocates credit for saving more than 100 lives a year. Today, the Washington state Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether Skagit County Superior Court Judge Susan Cook was right when she ruled last year that the state's seat-belt law is unconstitutional. “We don't want to pick people off the highway with severe injuries because they weren't wearing a seat belt,” Pam Loginsky, a staff attorney for the Washington...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Though it's currently a state law to wear seatbelts, officers cannot pull a driver over simply for not wearing one. But new legislation seeks to change that, and most lawmakers agree it's a good idea. Though King has been spotted not wearing his seatbelt, he insists he's not just flouting the current law. "My situation is one more of physical circumstances than anything else. I'm 300 pounds and to get from here to there -- that whole over-the-shoulder -- often times when you're in suits or whatever it is pretty difficult to do," he said.

Senate drops seat-belt bill Lawmakers give up on controversial measure so they can move on to other legislation By JENNIFER TALHELM Staff Writer Senators killed a proposed tougher seat-belt law Wednesday, finally giving in to weeks of filibustering and allowing the Senate to turn to other matters. Lawmakers voted 23-21 to set aside a bill that would allow police to stop adult drivers who aren’t wearing seat belts. The vote ended a two-month-long filibuster led by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, who opposed the bill. Seat-belt bill opponents called the vote a victory. The bill’s supporters were dismayed....

SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - Buckle up Fido!   The city of Santa Fe may soon require pet owners to restrain their dogs, cats and ferrets in special pet seats or with seat belts while traveling in a moving vehicle. The ordinance, endorsed by the city's public safety committee, would also require that "animals in open beds of trucks and cars be tethered or restrained enough so the animal can't fly out the window," said Kate Rindy, executive director of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, who helped develop the proposed law. Rindy said dog seat belts as well as portable...

Oddly Enough - Reuters Pets May Have to Buckle Up Fri Mar 26, 8:17 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo! SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - Buckle up Fido! The city of Santa Fe may soon require pet owners to restrain their dogs, cats and ferrets in special pet seats or with seat belts while traveling in a moving vehicle. The ordinance, endorsed by the city's public safety committee, would also require that "animals in open beds of trucks and cars be tethered or restrained enough so the animal can't fly out the window," said Kate Rindy,...

Thursday, March 25, 2004 Now Big Brother Wants Seat Belts for Dogs Ultratrendy, ultraliberal, ultrawacky Santa Fe is considering requiring seat belts ... for critters. A City Council committee in New Mexico's capital yesterday endorsed an ordinance that would require any animal "in or on" a vehicle to be restrained. Among the options for pet owners, the Associated Press reported today: -A "pet safety sitter" ($13.69 to $21.69) that straps Fido's chest to the seat. -A restraint with a loop that attaches to a seat belt. -"Pickup tie-outs" that attach to Muttley's collar to keep it from jumping out of...

Testimony of Richard F. Healing Member, National Transportation Safety Board before the Committee on Transportation Missouri Senate on Senate Bill 1260 – Primary Safety Belt Enforcement Jefferson City, Missouri March 2, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good morning Chairman Dolan and members of the Transportation Committee. It is my pleasure to be here in Jefferson City to talk about strengthening your seat belt law. I want to commend you for considering a measure that will so easily save motor vehicle occupants from crash-related deaths and injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress to investigate transportation...

As people continue to needlessly die on S.C. roads, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell’s delaying a vote on a strong seat-belt law may be costing more than lives. McConnell is not just defying a majority of the 46-member S.C. Senate that he leads — now he’s defying President Bush, who leads his political party. Under a Bush administration bill in Congress, South Carolina could get $11 million more in federal highway money next year — but only if it passes a strong seat-belt law. The $11 million is part of a proposed Bush plan to save lives in the...

Buckle Up for Hillary Print Friendly Format E-Mail this to a Friend By Eric Peters Published 1/8/2004 12:05:16 AM Hillary Clinton wants you to buckle up for safety -- and she's ready to crack her whip to make sure that you do. Along with co-sponsoring Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, Sen. Clinton is pushing strong-arm federal legislation, Senate Resolution 1993, that would all but require every state in the country to pass "primary enforcement" seat belt laws. Primary enforcement means the police can screech out of alleyways, turn on their sirens and pull you over, hands on their guns, spotlight...