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seat belt thread

To: british-cars@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: seat belt thread
From: Mike Duvall <duvall@uis.edu>
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 00:10:20 -0600
Interesting thread.... I love America because we can each individually
  decide if you want to wear your seatbelts or not.....
that is-  we used to be able to decide. 

The whole seatbelt thing is pushed on us by the insurance industry and
  I'm sure it keeps our rates down.  Wearing seat belts saves lives &
injuries in the majority (not all) cases.
The insurance industry bankrolled all the lobbyists and got the laws
passed. The "let it all hang" out 60s generation
  seems to be passing more laws than we can follow and my objection is
the freedom issue not the safety issue.

If the insurance industry wants us to use our seat belts, it ought to
be in our policies, not in our laws.

In Illinois, I cannot legally take my daughter in a
  ride in my British cars because she needs to, by law, be in a booster
  seat.  Now the booster seat itself, and every web site I can find, tell
  you not to use booster seats with lap only belts. According to the
  experts, it is more dangerous than not using a booster seat.  As a
  matter of fact, all the sites say use your judgment with older
children to know if they even need a booster seat. Yet I could get a
$75. ticket for not obeying the law.

  I called my representatives and they only say "why don't you just
  follow the law"  (the idiots are supposed to be Republicans)  I
  responded just how would I do that?  They believed I shouldn't take my
  daughter in the car. This is the mentality of America and social
  do-gooders today.

One day, I found myself being screamed at by an anal-retentive social
  do-gooder in the parking lot  when he
  spied my 65 lb daughter in the seat without a booster.  If he had come
  any closer pointing at me, I was prepared to grab his arm pull him into
  the car, bang his head on the dash and then scream for the police and
  have him arrested for assault.  The government should not demand we
  wear safety belts or pay for our health care either. If people want to
  kill themselves with drugs, cigarettes cars or whatever, let them.  It
  is not the government's job to protect us from ourselves.

   But you and I are the ones who get the grief by people who can
  only see in black and white.  The let it all hang out 60s generation
  seems to be passing more laws than we can follow.

By the way,  I wear my seat belt because one time I didn't have it on
and ended
  up putting out the windshield with my head (I have suffered from
whiplash for years) and I make sure my kids are buckled up whenever we
go anywhere.

  Mike






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