Editorial

Seatbelts, texting should become primary offenses

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

If I text while driving without a seatbelt on, and don't get a ticket, am I breaking the law?

Questions for Philosophy 101 become moot if you're in the path of that falling tree or you're thrown from your car in a wreck because someone was checking Facebook instead of watching the road.

AAA Nebraska supports a bill by State Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff, which would allow law enforcement officers to stop and ticket drivers who they suspect are not wearing seatbelts or who are texting.

Seatbelts and texting are now secondary laws, meaning you have to be stopped for something else before you can get a ticket for those offenses.

Rose White of AAA Nebraska thinks most people ignore such secondary laws.

"We know that most people want to obey a primary law. If we look at Iowa, they do have a primary safety belt law, seat belt usage there is at about 93 percent compared to in Nebraska, with our secondary law, usage is at 79 percent," she said at a news conference in Lincoln.

That translates to more dead Nebraska motorists. During the last 10 years, she said, more than 1,400 men, women and children died in accidents when they were not wearing seatbelts. Distracted driving undoubtedly played a part in many of those fatalities as well.

Some will argue that it's just another government intrusion into personal freedoms, like wearing a motorcycle helmet -- or even buying health insurance!

But government already intrudes into your freedom to drive that car by requiring you to carry insurance, license and registration.

And while many of us get away with texting and driving without seatbelts, the odds are against us.

Many of those 1,400 fatalities involved people who were thrown from their vehicles; making seatbelt usage a primary offense is predicted to increase usage by 15 percent, saving about 60 lives a year, not to mention reducing medical costs and lost productivity.

Cracking down on seatbelt usage and texting will prove we're serious about saving lives.

A proposal in the Legislature would allow law enforcement to stop and ticket drivers they suspect are not wearing seatbelts or who are texting on cell phones. Do you support such a law?
 Yes
 No

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