South Dakota Ponders Stronger Seat Belt Law
In these tough financial times, South Dakota is contemplating tightening seat belt laws with an eye on $5.2 million in one-time federal dollars that would come as a result.
Currently people can be cited for failure to use a seatbelt, but only if they are stopped for another offense. In order to receive the $5.2 million federal reward, it would have to become a primary offense, one that police could stop a car for with no other justification.
Though it has been tried before, the current climate of budget shortfalls may tempt the legislature to try it again this year.
The Rapid City Journal says Senate Democratic leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls is a key supporter of the proposal.
Also interviewed in the article was former Dist. 35 Senator Bill Napoli who said South Dakota’s strong Libertarian streak makes passage unlikely.
I have been a 100% seatbelt wearer since I was 15 years old and was involved in my first car wreck. A drunk driver was on my side of a dirt road and we hit head-on coming over a curving hill. The whack my forehead made against the windshield in that accident (I was not wearing a seatbelt) was enough to convince me to wear it from then on.
My 10 years in the U.S. Air Force, where seatbelt use is mandatory in both military vehicles and private ones on base, only reinforced my decision to always wear seatbelts. And I always ensure my children have their seatbelts on before the vehicle moves an inch.
However, that is my choice. While I support mandatory restraints for children, I firmly believe it should be up to adults to decide whether to wear a seatbelt or not. Though I believe it is foolish not to wear one, it should be the decision of the adult. No immoral act is involved and no one else is being harmed if you don’t wear a seatbelt. An adult should make that call for themselves, and an adult should live with the consequences.
We do not need a nanny-state government making such personal decisions for us.
The Journal article says seatbelt law compliance is about 72% in South Dakota. I’d say that’s pretty good.
And $5.2 million in federal bribes isn’t nearly enough to justify the compromise to personal freedom.
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