For the good ones..that enforce the LAW..and protect the citizens..my hat is off and deep appreciation goes..thanks ten8fiftyone

 

Here in Washington state it is mandatory and a principal reason to pull you over. As someone said, do you know how many felons are in jail for minor traffic violations. I worked at the United States Disciplinary Barracks (that's the military prison) at Ft Leavenworth, KS back in the mid 70s and there were three inmates that escaped. One they caught when they ran the only red light in town, a couple of weeks later they got another one for running a stop sign.

I personally have had a seat belt save my bacon. I hit black ice and went off the road at 50-55mph, the piece of the rock I hit that was sticking up out of the ground was bigger than my truck. This was before air bags and the shoulder belt kept me from breaking my nose or much worse.

I don't like that fact that it is mandatory but I can understand it. I believe most of the primary reason laws have been passed since 9/11. This gives the police a little more reason to pull over suspicious vehicles. Of course there are those that abuse any law.

On a brighter note my dad and mom got pulled over once as they passed a trooper. He didn't notice the belt on my dad and fell in behind them, ran the plates and passed them, he also say a little black haired girl in between my folks and didn't think she was properly restrained. He pulled off and then after they went by he hit the lights, they pulled over and boy was he embarrassed when the little black haired girl turned out to be their little black dog.

 

There was a report from Montana that said it best about seat belts , the hiways in Montana at one time had no speed limits and they death rates were up there , few years ago they enacted speed limits on the hiways and for some reason the hiways death increased with lower speed limits , and the reason they found was that folks that new they would be driving faster would always put on seat belts and after the law came into affect , the folks stop wearing seat belts because of the slower speed limits felt they didnt need them any longer. here in CA I see so many SUV accidents that involve fatalities from roll overs and no seat belts... I wear mine all the time and wear my helmet all the time.

 

Yesterday, my wife, son and I went to up to Maine. At the NH tolls, one of NH's finest was standing just behind one of the booths watching 2 of the lanes. He motioned to a driver 3 cars ahead of me and handed his passenger a pamplet. I'm guessing it was info on thier seat belt laws. He just looked at the 2 cars in front of us, and us (we wear them) but didn't do anything.

Neither NH or ME have helmet laws, and I'd be surprised if more than 10% of riders wore them.