Anti-seat belt law advocate is killed in automobile accident.

[RobertSeattle]

Claim: Anti-seat belt law advocate is killed in automobile accident.

Status: True.

http://www.snopes.com/autos/accident/seatbelt.asp

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2005/01/04/local/doc41db350078259784029686.txt

"In a column written for the Daily Nebraskan in September, Derek attacked seat belt laws as intrusions on individual liberties and expensive to enforce.

"It is my choice what type of safety precautions I take," he wrote.

"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."

[slackmaster]

1. I'm surprised to see this here rather than in the Lounge

Is matcom asleep at the wheel?

[RoeBear]

2. He's packing

for a trip

[MADem]

3. He doesn't belong to that group any more....

....CLICK.

Seat belts can be a pain in the ass, but I wear mine. And I make everyone else wear theirs, too. If they don't want to, they don't ride with me--they can drive those Nikes they got strapped to their feet!

The most interesting line of the newspaper article, on edit, was:
"He had a Republican focus on economic issues," she said. "He was aggressive. He was really intense."

Paging Dr. Darwin....Charles Darwin....

[Shopaholic]

4. I wear mine too.

My home state doesn't even have a motorcycle helmet law. What a bunch of idiots-is it any surprise that my home state is controlled by Repugs????

[Piperay]

31. I never ever go without

wearing mine, yeah they are a pain in the ass but being dead or permanently maimed would be a bigger pain. :think:

[alphafemale]

38. Nobody rides with me without seatbelts either.

If they've got a problem with that...too bad.

Besides safety it's a $200 fine here.

[bobbobbins]

5. i think it should be a matter of personal choice

but i always wear mine

[SemperEadem]

32. I do, too... and since I like my face and my body,

and can cope with the little aches and pains I already feel as a result of growning older, I choose to wear mine.

[madinmaryland]

6. Sounds like Gary Busey who fell off a motorcycle,

and gave himself brain damage. This after he was against requiring the use of helmets.

[Worst Username Ever]

7. If someone chooses not to wear a helmet or seatbelt

then I don't want my insurance paying for their stupidity when they get brain damage they would not have sustained had they taken these precautions. There should be "no seatbelt" insurance that these morans should have to purchase.

[AngryAmish]

25. That is a slippery slope you are dancing on

Ban smoking... it causes lung cancer.

Ban booze... car accidents and cirrosis

Ban mountain biking...lots of orthopedic inuries

Ban whatever is unpopular...

[Worst Username Ever]

27. "banning"

vs. being "held accountable" are two different things. Don't want to wear a helmet? Then contribute more to the insurance company that is going to have to pay for your care while you are in a coma so that everyone else doesn't have to pay for your own decision. Want to smoke? That is fine, but life insurance and health insurance ARE (and should be) higher for you. That is what I am saying.

[eek MD]

33. While i agree with that...

How on earth is the insurance company going to determine that?..If it was made legal with higher insurance rates, there'd really be no way for the insurance company to know who to charge higher rates to....(until there's an accident, at which point it's of little consequence to jack up premiums on someone in a coma)

[Worst Username Ever]

34. Well that is true, although if an officer makes note of seatbelt use

during a ticket for another violation, that could put a flag on the insurance carrier's record for the insured. Imperfect, but better than nothing.

[tx_dem41]

36. I bet that studies would show that most people who don't wear...

..seatbelts and are in injury-causing accidents DIE, thus relieving the rest of us of added medical insurance costs. And, no I don't have anything to back that up. Its just a thought.

[UdoKier]

8. It's kinda funny, but I agree with his right to not wear one.

But his not wearing his seat belt should invalidate his life insurance...

[wtmusic]

12. Great, just don't let NSMA find out n/t

[mtnester]

37. But then you pass his bad decision on to his wife and kids

by denying them the life insurance. There has to be a better solution.

Maybe everyone should be required to spend some time in a trauma room before you get your license so you can make a really informed decision about wearing/not wearing a seatbelt or helmet.

[UdoKier]

39. No, HE denies his wife and kids the insurance.

And he should be aware of that fact. The same thing happens when someone commits suicide, and I disagree with laws against suicide as well. I don't believe in a nanny state to protect us from ourselves.

Just because it doesn't feel right to you doesn't make it wrong.

Your suggestion about the trauma room is good, although again, I don't agree with requiring it.

I wear my seat belt religiously (in fact, my car belts me in automatically), and when I rode a motorbike, I NEVER did so without a full-face helmet, but I disagree with such nanny laws unless you are talking about minors. You cannot mandate common sense.

I do draw the line at alcohol. I think the BAC laws are appropriate as they are.

[fairfaxvadem]

9. You know, some things you do for others, not yourself.

Now, his father is devastated. A bright young son, gone. Seatbelt laws are for the people who love you, as far as I'm concerned. We wouldn't have seatbelt laws if it weren't for the petitioning of family members who had lost loved ones in exactly this fashion, among others.

[egoprofit]

19. that incident, in itself, proves what's right

buckle up.

[sdfernando]

22. You're abolutely correct

You're abolutely correct....some things you do for those you love and who love you, if not for yourself. Putting on my seatbelt is so much a part of driving, I don't even think about it any more, it just happens. The times I notice it are when I drive my old 63 Studebaker Hawk GT (great car!). It has lap belts but no sholders. I will always subconsiously feel for the shoulder belt that isn't there.

Anyway, he gambled and lost and now those he loved and who loved him are in great pain because of it.

Please, everyone, always wear your seat belt. If you smoke please try and quit. If you drink do so in great moderation and NEVER if you're going to drive...Remember people out there love and cherish you and don't want to see you hurt.

[yella_dawg]

10. For years, I was in the camp that seatbelts were BS.

Then I went to school with a woman who's son was killed while not wearing a seatbelt. She became a crusader, and went around giving a program on seatbelt use. She had a film shot in Germany where a prison inmate volunteered to drive a Mercedes into a brick wall at 60mph. He got out and walked away. I haven't gone a mile without a seatbelt in total since I saw that film.

Damn! Talk about effective.

[Atlas Mugged]

18. Mine saved my life in 2003

I'm still seriously injured, and headed for surgery eventually. But I'm damned glad I was wearing mine. I was doing 55mph (really - I've never had a ticket of any kind or been in an accident - at age 51) and a schoolbus (with no children on board, but the driver, a frizz haired, chain smoking harpy, was giving some friends of hers a ride) made an illegal turn in my path. Destroyed my car, a Crown Victoria, and snapped my neck like popsicle stick. But at least I didn't end up a grease stain on the side of the bus.

[gnofg]

11. He made a choice

and it was a bad one. He may have had a 4.0 but smetimes common sense is a good thing to have. Car is moving at 60 miles an hour. You are moving at 60 miles an hour . Car stops no seatbelt and you are still moving at sixty. He forgot to take physics. Oops that is science and repugs don't believe in science

[depakid]

16. Libertarian "choices"

4.0 GPA's mean very little if you can't apply your knowledge.

Apparently, this guy also "... had a Republican focus on economic issues," meaning that he likely didn't understand how to apply his economics, either- or else missed class the day that externlities were discussed.

[MisterP]

13. word of the day: "spatterage"

[Ilsa]

14. My idiot sister fell out of her car

because she wouldn't wear her seat belt. Hell, her husband probably cut them out of the vehicle. I asked her if she'd start wearing them, and she still said "I dunno. I wasn't hurt that badly."

She is a moron. She was making a turn, her door wasn't closed properly and it swung open and she fell out. I asked her how she'd feel if the car continued on without her and perhaps ran over someone, maybe a child, and she still wouldn't concede that she should be strapped in.

[eissa]

17. I have one of those!

Only my idiot sister wears her seat belt -- she just has really bad taste in men and married the village idiot (no, it's not Laura!)

[rkc3]

20. My brother did that one night - he was loaded though and rolled

right through someone lawn. His friend said they made the bend, were talking and he realized no one was talking back. It took him 20 minutes to find my brother.

I think he suffered major brain trauma - he's a bush-supporter now.

[Ilsa]

24. So is my thick-headed idiot sister and her husband. n/t

[fujiyama]

15. Somebody had a link

on DU to a video of some truck driver that dozed off and wasn't wearing a seat belt. This guy had a cam in the vehicle and he was thrown back in the vehicle. The guy probably was seriously injured or killed.

Needless to say, it's not very smart to not wear a seatbelt, especially in the front, where in some accidents you can simply fly through the windsheild.

[Solon]

21. I find this both sad and funny...

black humor day I suppose. I do find it to be ironic at the very least. Never did understand people like him, for what he was advocating made no sense. When driving on PUBLIC roads, you have to follow the law, plain and simple, driving is a privelege, not a right, so why would this be any different?

[Cuban_Liberal]

23. Darwin was right. n/t

[Downtown Hound]

26. I knew a guy that always whined about

CA's motorcycle helmet law. Then he went to Minnesota which had no such laws and got in an accident which left him with permanent brain damage. I used to always tell my friends in college who refused to buckle up or even wear their helmets on a bicycle because they were "hard core," visit the head trauma ward at the hospital sometime. The only thing hard core about it it how messed up those people are.

[huskerlaw]

28. Totally true

I'm holding a copy of the Daily Nebraskan right now. It references the above column and talks about how he was killed in a car accident last week...icy streets, no seatbelt.

[gratuitous]

29. Yup, looks like a Darwin Award winner to me

The All-Pro defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs, Derrick Thomas, got his ticket punched a few winters ago. He was in a Jeep Cherokee or some such vehicle with a couple of friends on the way to the airport. Icy conditions, the car went off the road. One person, not buckled in, died at the scene. Thomas, a world class athlete, was also not buckled in and died of his injuries a couple of months later. The only person who was buckled in survived.

Who still has to be drawn a picture?

[Maclilly]

30. Email exchange with someone at

StoptheACLU.com. What a moron. I am sending him this article. Read below about how he hates the ACLY for not helping him end seatbelt requirements.

Nedd, you ought to be thanking the ACLU for protecting your right to even keep a site like yours up. They fight to protect the Constitution. As for a "baby in a womb" that all depends on whether you belief life starts at conception. You are pro-bith not pro-life. People like you don't give a damn about humanbeings once they take their first breath. You must agree with the fundie sites proclaiming this week's tsunami god's vengence on Swedish Lesbians. Do you even read the bible?
----- Original Message -----
From: [e-mail]
To: Lillian
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 7:33 PM
Subject: RE: ACLU


Your reply is nonsense, Lillian, no proof to back it up, based on emotions and liberal gaga instead of reason and logic. I see you don't think about things. Well, think about this one. You mention a woman's health, privacy and life. Fine. Add to that the protection of an unborn child in the womb and we'll agree.

Thank God politicians who believe like you aren't running this country.

Nedd

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: ACLU
From: "Lillian" <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, December 29, 2004 10:05 pm
To: [e-mail]


Your reply is nonsense. The ACLU has more pressing issues than seatbelts, which save lives by the way. This is nothing more than right wing rhetoric. Public buildings is not a place for religious beliefs. They are not redefining marriage, they are protecting the rights of individuals. the rights and privacy of a woman's health and life and port makes most of it's money in Red State America. Don't like porn, don't buy it. This is nonsense.
----- Original Message -----
From: [e-mail]
To: Lillian
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 7:18 PM
Subject: RE: ACLU


Uh, Lillian, how does the ACLU defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? The ACLU loves to proclaim a separation of church and state, yet that phrase is nowhere to be found in our Constitution.

I run a web site www.seatbeltchoice.com. Seat belt tickets violate the 4th Amendment in terms of unreasonable searches and stops. Not once has the ACLU ever defended a seat belt ticket recipient. In fact, a supporter of mine from that web site wrote me last year to say he is a card carrying member of the ACLU and he got a seat belt ticket but the ACLU refused to defend him. What kind of organization goes against what they say they are for and on top of that, doesn't go to bat for one of its members?

If you want, time permitting, I can put this guy in touch with you if you don't believe me. His name is Andrew and he has an AOL account. I don't know if he still belongs to the ACLU but needless to say, he was not happy.

Furthermore, I faxed a letter to the ACLU regarding this and asking why they don't represent seat belt ticket recipients in courts. Being the stealth organization it is, the ACLU would not let me talk to a lawyer or staff member or submit an e-mail. So I had to either write or fax them. I faxed them and got a similar response to Andrew - they don't do seat belt tickets. Would you like me to send you a copy of the letter. I can scan it and e-mail it you if you doubt me.

Think about the ACLU and what it really stands for. Most people do not support redefining marriage laws, abortion and porn without restrictions, and removing every vestige of God from public life. The ACLU has an agenda and it's not a family friendly or traditional values one. It is Communistic and Communism was quoted by the ACLU's founder, Roger Baldwin, as to what the goal of his organization is. I can't in good conscience support the ACLU.

A true civil rights organization is the Rutherford Institute. Check them out.

Thanks for writing, sorry for the long delay in replying.

Nedd


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ACLU
From: "Lillian" <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, November 26, 2004 5:53 pm
To: [e-mail]


Why do you attack an organization that defends our Constitution and Bill of Rights? I am a member of the ACLU and know for a fact that if it wasn't for them, you may not be allowed to post such nonsense. Get a life.

[MrSlayer]

35. I think everyone has the right to be stupid.

As long as it doesn't harm other people. I wonder what kind of accident it was and whether or not the belt would have mattered.

[raggedcompany]

40. re: I wonder what kind of accident it was and whether or not the belt....

Read the linked articles, MrSlayer. Other two passengers, both wearing their seatbelts, survived with non life threatening injuries. Dead kid was ejected from the car. Yes, the seat belt mattered.

[MrSlayer]

41. Thanks.

Well he got what he wanted, I guess.