Seatbelt Laws in America & Seatbelt Abuse Solution

There is one law in America which is easy to fix. In terms of vehicular operation, this law is abused only more by those taking advantage of the speed laws of this nation. It's the safety belt law in America. So many of my neighbors in South Carolina don't do what should be the rote motion which is as much a part of getting inside the car as shutting the car door. The proof of this claim was founded in my recent visit to traffic court. I had been cited for rolling through a stop sign and when the officer noticed my insurance card had expired, she wrote me a ticket for that. I had insurance; I just didn't have the card. So my sole mission in going to traffic court on the day in question was to show that I did indeed have insurance coverage on the day in question and quite literally the papers had crossed in the mail.

But the sheer volume of citations prior to mine which included stopping for lack of seatbelt, were found once stopped to be without seatbelt, or which qualified for lack of seatbelt was staggering. While the methodology of the officers may be dubious (One officer said, "I stopped the car for traveling with passenger in the middle seat of three in the back with no lap belt?" How are you supposed to observe that officer?), the writing was clear enough; no matter how you get stopped,, if you're found to be without a seatbelt, you're getting a ticket!

Whatever you think of the safety belt laws in America, there is one sure fire way to stop this from being an offense which people need to be stopped for. There could be an exterior light on the outside of the car which can go of when any person sitting in any of the cars seats are not wearing their seatbelt. Then, there could be a GPS tracker from Google Earth or something which could beam down a picture to that vehicles exact spot on the planet, send the image to law enforcement, who can then go ahead and write you a ticket. They don't even need to mail you one; they can email you a ticket!

This enforcement could start off easily enough; we don't need to get satellites from space involved at the get-go. How about the stoplight cameras in major cities all over the world? These can be the first places where these cameras are installed; major intersections. If a digital camera can email you an image then what the heck are you going to do about that?

If your light is malfunctioning then you have to get it repaired. There could also be a separate tracker which is inside the car and keeps an independent record of every time that you did and did not have your seatbelt on. That's the fail-safe for drivers. Heck why not just make having a seatbelt fastened in the driver's seat the same as putting your key in the ignition. No seatbelt? No drive.

And if people are going to start talking about infringement of 'rights;' there is no 'right' in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights which says you have any right to drive on the roads of this country. Driving is a privilege; a privilege which can be taken away. We're all just trying to co-exist with a reasonably similar playbook of rules; it's amazing to me that so many people still have a hard time with this one small task (and it keeps you safe, to boot!)

I'm not usually one for Big Brother style garbage like this but if the police were not bothered with traffic violations like no seatbelt or rolling through a stop sign then they could get to the task of dealing with real criminals. Though if you are sitting in the middle back seat of some guys car, and you're thinking you're too smart to beat the system, you should be put on notice.