Poll: Support or Oppose Raising Seat Belt Violations From $10 to $50
I’ve long been a fan of seat belt use so the effort of Missouri state Senator Joseph Keavany to try again to raise fines caught my attention:
Now, almost three years later, Missouri still ranks pretty low among states for seat belt compliance, at 79 percent; hundreds of people involved in traffic accidents still die because they don’t buckle up; and Missouri’s fine for not wearing a seat belt is $10.
“The fine for littering in Missouri is $79.50,” Keaveny, D-St. Louis, told the Ride Guy last week.
Senate Bill 62 is the latest version. Keaveny prefiled it for the upcoming session and hopes to get this measure out of committee. (stltoday.com)
You can find SB62 here, and all the 2013 prefiled Senate bills here.
This is the topic for the poll this week, vote in the right sidebar and share your thoughts in the comments below.
— Steve Patterson
Primary offense or secondary? In some states (I’m not sure about Missouri), you can’t be stopped just for no seatbelt, you need to be stopped for something else, like speeding. (And in Wyoming, based on personal experience, you get an automatic discount on your speeding fine if you ARE wearing your seatbelt.)
While I definitely support the underlying reasoning, my cynical side says that this may also be used more to hassle / profile motorists, much like a burned out taillight or license plate light, by creating another pretense for initiating a traffic stop. In reality, most of our police officers have bigger priorities than trying to motivate drivers to increase their seatbelt usage (much like trying to limit texting, requiring kids to be in their child safety seats or even getting people to just signal their turns). It all boils down to personal responsibility more than more or stricter laws . . . .
He’s just replacing $50 for $10 in the law, you’d still need to be pulled over for another reason.
Sounds like more harassment of the decent hard working law abiding citizens. It is rediculous that in this “free” country, we have to have government play parent because people don’t have the common sense to do what is right. At least in the city, our police have bigger fish to fry & actual serve & protect. Whereas in lower crime areas, police are used more for revenue raisers to line the pockets of corrupt government officials.
You’re not a law abiding citizen if you break the seat belt law…
You’re not a law abiding citizen if you break ANY law . . . we all “bend” and break many “small” laws every day, exceeding the posted speed limit by a few mph, driving after “a couple” of beers, not coming to a full and complete stop at each and every stop sign, not clearing our sidewalks after every light dusting of snow, not self-reporting and paying our local sales taxes for our online purchases, etc, etc, etc. We also all have our pet peeves that drive us crazy and there needs to be a balance between living in a true police state (where one pays high taxes for many police to enforce even minor infractions) and living in a city, state and country where we still have a certain amount of freedom, including the ability to take stupid chances, engage in risky behavior and keep our taxes affordable . . . .
Lol, you poor, oppressed soul. How do you cope?
It’s rather humorous to see individuals such as yourself whinging about trifles like seatbelt or smoking laws, but don’t bat an eye when the NSA spies on the citizenry, the President escalating drone bombing (a war crime, btw), police and other law enforcement beating and pepper spraying peaceful protesters (who’ve been corralled into “free speech zones”; George Orwell couldn’t have imagined), the FBI spying on peace groups, and labeling them “terrorist” organizations, going back beyond COINTELPRO to the Palmer raids, at least. There are hundreds of examples more.
Sad, really.
As for the seatbelt law: meh. Doesn’t matter anyway; the Confederate State of Missouri (almost anywhere outside of the STL, KC, and Columbia areas) will bust a gasket knocking it down. Gubmint! LIEbruls! Socialism! Too funny.
Interesting that you only mention goverment promoted activities yet 90% of the people that mention these items seems to convienently overlook Google, Microsoft, every smart phone, insurance companies, and a thousand other activities that are used to spy on us under the pretty name of marketing, saving money, or such. I’m more worried about Big Business spying on me than Big Brother.
More nonsense from the state legislature, like right to pray or can’t be fired for owning a gun legislation.
$50 isn’t a deterrent. $50 is a joke. Just like most of Missouri’s other traffic fines (Speeding, Red Light), this one is to low and so is the proposed increase. If a law doesn’t have any teeth, or the police don’t enforce because they have “other fish to fry,” then what is the point?! Make it a primary offence and make the payment hurt. Low dollar fines are just a tax on the stupid. Seat belt offenders don’t posses the mental faculty to understand why they need to buckle a safety belt, and sadly, are stupid to get the message with a fine of $10.
Interestingly you will find that the countries which are consistently rated among the best to live in worldwide also have correspondingly high $$$ traffic fines (Finland, Denmark, UK, Canada for example). Like $20K vs $500.
Oh ya, and while the State House is at it, why don’t they make it mandatory for the rear seat passengers to buckle up?
Come on Missouri, why don’t you at least try….Embarrassing!
Agreed Ryley….but then again, if we did try, we have the ever present ‘harassment of the decent….’ folks to deal with.
I support this. Raise it to $100.