Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Search / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

What Would You Do If It Were Illegal To Wear Seatbelts?

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

When I told Jefferson Review readers about my traffic accident, in which I was stopped at a red light and was hit from behind, I was surprised at the people who wrote to tell me that I should be glad there was a law requiring the use of seatbelts.  They assumed that, if I were not required by law to wear a seatbelt, I probably would not have been wearing one and might have been injured.  This logic shocked me!  I have worn a seatbelt from the time they became available, whether or not it was required by law, because I think it makes me safer – not because I am worried about being ticketed by a policeman.  But these comments made me wonder what people would do if it became illegal to wear a seatbelt.

As the campaign finance reform folks have assured us, you can get almost any legislation you want through a legislature if you are willing to pay enough, so let’s imagine a hypothetical situation in which some group lobbies to make it illegal to wear seatbelts.  The hypothetical lobbyists would argue that seatbelts give us a false sense of security, causing us to drive recklessly, and therefore actually make us less safe.  (As with much legislation, the real reason behind the legislation would not be the stated reason.  Actually, the hypothetical lobbyists might be hoping that more people would be injured, in order to drum up more business for doctors and hospitals.)  So, how would this law affect people’s behavior?

Would the illegality of seatbelts change your behavior?  Would you stop wearing your seatbelt because you might be ticketed?  Would you stop requiring your children and other passengers to buckle up before you started the engine? 

I know what I would do.  Since I think that seatbelts really do make us safer, I would continue to wear my seatbelt and would continue to require my children and other passengers to wear theirs.  I would also begin wearing a shield over my seatbelt to conceal it, so the police couldn’t tell that I was wearing it.  So, the law would change my behavior slightly but only in that I would begin to conceal it.  I would also have to explain to my children once again that legislatures are made up of human beings who are not perfect.  They may enact laws that are dumb and maybe even downright evil, so we must do what we think is right regardless of the law.  This lecture would not shock my children, since they have heard it frequently over the years, such as when we sneaked out at night to cut down a dead tree in our yard without a tree-cutting permit and cut it up into little pieces to hide the evidence.  (To the Anchorage Gestapo – I was just kidding – of course we never did that!)

I don’t know how the change in the law might change people’s behavior.  It is an interesting question, but an even more interesting question is whether the government should try to control and regulate our behavior when we are not harming other people.  In a free country, shouldn’t we be free to use our own minds and free will and make our own decisions about whether to wear a seatbelt?  How can we learn to be responsible and take care of ourselves if we rely on legislators to make all our decisions for us?  If we can’t be trusted to decide about buckling our own seatbelts, how can we be trusted to earn a living, or to raise children, or (gasp!) to elect the right people to control our behavior?

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest / Search / White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN