Police Write 190,000 Seat-Belt Tickets

[The Straight Story]

Police Write 190,000 Seat-Belt Tickets

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida police are ticketing over 1,000 motorists every day for seat belt violations.

Authorities have written more than 190,000 seat belt tickets since a new, tougher law took effect June 30 that requires drivers to buckle up. That averages slightly more than 1,000 drivers each day.

The primary seat belt law permits officers to pull drivers over if they or their front seat passengers are not buckled up. Anyone under 18 must wear seat belts regardless of where they sit in the vehicle.

Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Mark Welch said it's estimated the new law will save about 125 lives annually and prevent more than 1,700 serious injuries.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/22094769/detail.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Quick way to make some money.. CA got $510.00 from my husband

He got "trapped in the box" and ran a red..he was the 2nd of 3 cars that were "in the box", so they actually got $510 times 3.. The red light cameras out here are making bank for the state... and the registration rates are up too.

[TransitJohn]

2. They don't state how much money they expect to generate though.

Nice use of the statistics. :hi:
Thanks for the thread.

[midnight]

3. My grandfather hated the seatbelt..... I find it odd that on trains and buses

there are no seat belts.

[Orrex]

4. Statistically, are trains and buses in as many accidents as cars?

Just wondering. I know that some school buses have seatbelts, but not all.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I find it strange that school buses don't have seat belts when the same children that

ride them are required to be belted when they ride in the family car.

[NutmegYankee]

10. Calculated risk.

The seats are padded and have high backs to contain the children in an accident. In addition, the size of the school bus makes it unlikely to generate a substantial G-force onto the passengers when collided with by an automobile.

The bigger concern with buses and trains is getting everyone out in a fire since you have a large number of people using a few exits. Automobiles on the other hand have more exits, but the unbelted passengers in a normal accident would likely be too injured to get out on their own (unless thrown free). When you see a large loss of life with buses or trains, the accident was typically catastrophic and belts wouldn't have saved many of the people anyhow.

[Tesha]

11. On average, about five kids a year are killed while riding on school buses.

http://144.171.11.107/Main/Blurbs/The_Relative_Risks_of_School_Travel_A_National_Per_161028.aspx

There's no need for seat belts on school buses and quite
a few good reasons to not have them.

Tesha

[Mugweed]

5. Meawhile it's OK in FL to not wear motorcycle helmets

It's legal in FL to ride down the road on a motorcycle wearing shorts, a t-shirt, flip-flops, and nothing else. If you're in a car, you better have that seat belt on...it's for your own safety and it's the LAW. This state is run by the mentally challenged.

[DrDan]

8. let look at it optimistically - 125 lives will be saved annually with aggressive seat-belt laws

so the "mentally challenged" you refer to took some positive steps this year.

I am a Florida resident with a Harley. I would never consider riding in shorts, flip-flops and without a helmet. Those that do - they will be weeded out quite quickly making some additional room for those of us who try to keep ourselves a bit more safe.

[tritsofme]

13. Any positives that come out of these laws are purely incidental.

Laws like these are about revenue generation, and nothing else.

[DrDan]

14. whatever - I am in favor.

Not so much for the drivers - more for the children riding with them. If they are forced to buckle-up - then the law is a good one. Fine the hell out of any driver who allows the child-passengers to ride unbuckled.

[TransitJohn]

20. Haha

"Won't somebody please think of the children!!!!???"
:hi:

[DrDan]

23. go ahead - make fun . . . I have a granddaughter and that is exactly what I do

I think she has made me much more conscious of child safety. (Not sure why it would be more so than with my own 2 children.)

so have your laugh . . . that's ok

[carlsharp]

24. IMO you are 100% correct...but there's one other little tiny ...

reason for these laws: it allows the po-po an opportunity to possibly find or "find" a reason to arrest you. Their goal is to get as many people into "The System" as possible, as soon as possible.

[Mugweed]

15. How many lives are lost annually by persons without helmets?

Should 125 be the tipping point number to make helmets the law again? I would think that if this was all in the interest of safety, helmets would never have become optional. I'm a FL resident, too. I know well enough that our legislators are not all that smart, and are purchased quite easily. I try to vote in ones that I think would be intelligent and ethical, but there are too many right-wingers in my district that cancel out my vote.

[DrDan]

16. of course they are easily purchased.They are politicians after all.

No better and no worse than politicians at higher levels.

Toughen up both of the laws.

[jmowreader]

6. And it will bring over $100,000 per day into the state's coffers

I like the seat belt law, really I do. If the only way to make people buckle up is to threaten them, threatening them is the order of the day.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the FINANCIAL aspects of it: court cost is probably $125, the ticket is another $30...that's $155 PER PERSON, and every day they're pulling over a thousand people? Work it out kids, that's 56 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR they're making off this law. Enough to compensate for one of their stupid tax cuts? I think so.

Frank Zappa was a very astute man. He once pointed out the government was going to attempt to make us all into criminals so we'd all be the same. Well...he was right.

[DrDan]

19. the $30 goes to the state - court costs to the county

Here in Volusia - total ticket is around $100. I know - I paid two of them. My wife and I carelessly left the golf course and did not buckle up - we both ended up with tickets - me driving and her as a passenger.

I really don't begrudge the state, however. I should have had the belt on. My wife should have had the belt on. An expensive lesson - but I am now better at buckling - so perhaps it ended up a positive event.

[zonkers]

9. Got no problem with this. Now how about tickets for tossing cigarette butts and taligating.

[Mugweed]

17. The people who tailgate me the most here in FL are the cops

They all drive about 90 mph on I-95 and 528. They come up on you and ride your ass about 6 inches off your bumper. I refuse speed up or slow down to move over for them, because I'm doing the legal speed limit and they don't have lights or sirens on. I'll move over when I safely pass the car on my right.

[zonkers]

26. You are so right. They must start by being an example. I hate when cops make turns w/out signaling.

Grrrrrrrrr.

[Raine]

37. You should be ticketed for tossing cigarette butts

they can cause brush fires (as they have here in CA)they also go into the storm drains and eventually end up polluting the beach. DISGUSTING! x(

[RB TexLa]

12. The auto insurance companies paid a lot to get those laws passed they expect their profits to be

protected.

[proteus_lives]

28. Aren't you the idiot who posted "I don't wear a seatbelt" thread?

[RB TexLa]

30. I don't wear them, I understand and accept the safety risks. That however isn't good enough

for the auto insurance companies. They provided information regarding the safety benefits of seat belts but that wasn't enough they spent millions and millions to get state laws passed to force people to wear them and protect their costs in accidents.

And the states don't care about your safety either, if they did the fine for not wearing a seatbelt would be $10,000 per citation.

[Paladin]

33. I Hope You Never Have To Pay For Your Ignorance.

Last May I had a near-fatal car accident; broke my spine in two places. The first responders at the scene told me that the only thing that kept me alive was wearing my seat belt. Greedy insurance companies didn't enter into it.

My family and I got into the habit of regular seat belt usage a few years ago after one of my daughters' high school friends got thrown from a vehicle that was broad-sided---dead at seventeen from a crushed skull; wearing a belt probably would have kept her alive. Again, greedy insurance companies didn't have fuck-all to do with it.

Lotsa luck in your efforts to teach the insurance giants a lesson by jeopardizing your own safety.....

[RB TexLa]

34. It's not to teach anyone anything, I don't like them across me. I sacrifice safety for comfort.

[Better Today]

Well, my first thought is to wonder how many really had the belts off.

I know someone who claims (and since she has always been a belt wearer even before the laws in this state changed, I have no reason to doubt) she had her seat belt on. Got pulled over for a different violation, knew she would be asked for license, insurance, and registration, some of which was in the jockey box which she couldn't reach. She unbuckled to reach over and get the stuff and was setting back up as the police arrived to her window. . . no seat belt apparently on, so though he did not ticket her for the questionable right hand turn (rolled through maybe, and yes she was a right roller) she got a ticket for no seatbelt which around here is a pretty stiff fine.

[Better Today]

18. OOPs, Delete post, DU double tap

[bigwillq]

21. I don't think anyone should be fined

for not wearing a seatbelt. It's their personal choice to wear one or not.

[elocs]

22. Where I live somebody is killed nearly every week in a rollover accident,

"thrown from the vehicle and killed" while others in the vehicle escape without injury. Not hard to guess who was wearing their seat belts. Yet very soon I will read of a rollover accident, which are usually very survivable when wearing a seat belt, where someone was thrown from the vehicle and killed.

[Edweird]

25. The economy is in the shitter and the budget is busted. These tickets are impromptu taxes

That's all it amounts to. As long as it isn't a child restraint related ticket, there aren't any points assessed. I'd rather that than the speeding tickets I've been getting.

[shadowknows69]

27. I feel so much safer. Any cell phone or texting while drivings?

[proteus_lives]

29. Wear your seat-belts.

I don't understand why someone wouldn't.

[Orsino]

31. Floridians are slow learners?

No, I know they're not--I just wonder at people anywhere not using their fucking seat belts. Are we really that careless about it?

[FarCenter]

32. If you are not wearing a seat belt, your personal injury insurance should be voided

[B Calm]

35. Indiana gives you a point on your license for not wearing a seat belt!

[timtom]

36. Another outrageous boondoggle

in the name of public safety.