Mississippi lawmakers recently proposed laws that would enable police officers to pull over drivers for not wearing a seatbelt. Mississippians should ardently support the enactment of this potentially life-saving law.
Currently, Mississippi police officers cannot stop people simply for driving sans seatbelts. Under the state’s current secondary seatbelt law, they can issue a $25 ticket for not wearing a seatbelt if they have pulled them over for a different reason, such as speeding.
The proposed primary seatbelt law would eliminate police officers’ need for a second offense to nab someone for not wearing a seatbelt. It would also put Mississippi alongside the 20 other states that currently have a primary seatbelt law.
This seatbelt law may influence people to act responsibly and buckle up before they start driving, instead of immediately before they pass a police car.
Drivers and passengers know that wearing a seatbelt can save their lives, but many choose to ignore the benefits and avoid the hassle of buckling up. Buckling a seatbelt comes automatically to some people, but it simply does not cross others’ minds.
People should have the freedom to make their own decisions concerning their personal welfare, but in this case they need a push toward fastening their seatbelts.
Sometimes a decision to avoid buckling up can affect others.
When parents choose to not buckle up themselves or their young children, they put more lives in danger than their own. Innocent children should not have to suffer the consequences because an irresponsible parent does not buckle them up.
A parent’s decision to skip wearing seatbelts also affects older children. They can capably make their own decisions but typically follow their parents’ examples.
Neglecting to wear a seat belt can also cause other people to pay. If the number of car accidents increase, insurance premiums rise. Health insurance premiums rise when a significant number of people receive medical care due to car accident injuries.
Driving carefully does not constitute insurance for not buckling up. The safest driver still cannot prevent the irresponsibility of other drivers. No matter who bears fault for a car accident, both involved parties suffer.
According to the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, only 25 percent of people who died in car and truck accidents in Mississippi in 2002 were wearing a seatbelt.
Even if the proposed harsher law goes in effect, some people will still choose to ignore their seatbelt. However, switching seatbelt laws from secondary to primary may give lazy people that final nudge to buckle up.
Laws telling people they must do something that they already know they should do seem somewhat insulting, but they constitute a necessary precaution. People need to be reminded of the obvious.
Plastic foam coffee cups at McDonald’s warn people of the hot java inside and fast food restaurants offer nutritional advice to make it obvious that eating burgers and fries regularly might make people overweight.
Hairdryers have tags that read, “Do not immerse in water,” signs say to slow down for curves and labels on bottles of chemicals warn people to not ingest the contents.
Maybe more stringent seatbelt laws will remind drivers to buckle up so that they will not fly through the windshield when they are in a car accident.
Jenn Rousey is a senior English, French and communication major. She can be reached at [email protected].