Re: RE: Seat Belt Tickets??

From: Bill Pitz (dakota@billpitz.com)
Date: Sun Jun 06 2004 - 16:09:38 EDT


On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 14:12:15 -0400, garyhedlin@sbcglobal.net (Gary
Hedlin) wrote:
>Thatıs my veiw on it exactly.... Wearing a seat belt is a personal safety
>choice and in no way affects the safety of others.

Right... It's not as though your flying through the windshield in a
collision is going to cause the problem -- the reason you're flying
through the windshield in the first place is because of the collision.
That should be your own choice and I really don't care what everyone
else chooses to do.

On the other hand, I have mixed feelings over this issue when it comes
to young children. They're not yet old enough to make an informed
deicsion about personal safety issues. A 6 or 7 year old isn't going
to be able to make his own choice about what to do. Odds are he's
going to do what mom and dad are doing.

>In Illinois its a $55 fine, and they can pull you over if they see you not
>wearing one. Heh...and they say Fascism is dead???
>
>But in my case, I was wearing a safety belt, just not the stock shoulder
>belt but the lap belt. If the law is you must wear the stock safety belt,
>then there's A LOT of people in my situation that are up $hit creek when
>theyıve got $40,000 accessible vans that technically are not legal for them
>to drive or ride in.
>
>The standard practice for these vans is to secure the wheelchair via a
>locking mechanism to the floor, then the person is secured to the chair by
>the chairs internal safety belts or other apparatus (depending on a number
>of factors).
>
>You tell me how a shoulder belt would stop a 3-400lb wheelchair in a
>collision, because the laws of physics says it wont happen.

I'm sure that there are exceptions for that.

>Bottom line....seat belt modifications happen all the time in my realm, and
>they work better than the stock belts. So you tell me how safety belt laws
>can be made to deem these as illegal just on the sole premise that theyre
>not stock.
>
>
>....That's why im so upset about this!!

I completely understand where you're coming from. Given your
situation, I think you'd have a pretty compelling argument in court.
As was mentioned already, you might also consider contacting one or
more of your local tv stations, etc. I don't really see how they can
justify ticketing you in your situation.

-Bill



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