Wyoming is attempting to pass a law to begin so-called “primary” enforcement of the state’s seatbelt law. The paper mentioned this proposed bill in a “five bills you should care about” article, which also lists other bills designed to infringe on one’s personal freedom, including a public smoking ban and a no cell phones while driving bill.
|
2 Responses to “Wyoming Tries to Go Primary”
Leave a Reply
|
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm - Edit
While a smoker who is struggling with anti-smoking laws that destroy small businesses (I would prefer a compromise), I must make the note that driving on a cell phone while driving is not so much a personal freedom issue as it is a *public* safety issue. I understand your fervor and the necessity for you to stick to your anti-law gig, and so you’re not inclined to agree (or risk being called a “flip flopper,” as is the popular term), but I would rather keep my right to not get smashed and killed by an oblivious driver than my right to chat, if I must choose.
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:01 pm - Edit
Hi Sarah, thanks for reading and sharing your comments. I agree with you on the smoking issue. My idea of an acceptable compromise was along the lines of “If you don’t like the atmosphere, don’t dine there - or start your own smoke-free restaurant.” BTW, this is coming from a non-smoker who does not allow others to smoke in his home or his autos and personally finds the habit disgusting.
I understand where you are coming from on the cell phone issue as well. But I must ask, what is the difference between smoking while driving and talking on a cell phone? Or how about adjusting the radio, the climate controls, changing CDs, picking up dropped items, eating fast food, putting on make-up and all of the things people do while driving other than drive? They all distract the driver, require a hand be somewhere other than the wheel and/or eyes off the road for a given amount of time. There are many things that distract motorists while they drive from excessive billboards and roadside signs to things built right into your car, like the climate controls and radio.
Take away any one of these and the roadways don’t really get much safer. Something else immediately takes the place of any single distraction you have managed to eliminate. If we outlawed all of the things that distract drivers, we’d all drive in cold (or hot - depending on season) autos devoid of any conversation or music, with no phones and nothing to eat of drink. Its just not a reasonable expectation to have. The only difference, I would submit to you, is that cell phone talking is the current “hot button” issue of the day. Everyone is focused on it right now and yes, it is annoying to be stuck behind someone busy talking rather than driving.
I’m not anti-law, don’t get me wrong. Anarchy is not a viable solution to anything. But a perfect world this is not. There will always be accidents and there will always be people who perish in them. When you stop and think about how many cars, trucks and vans are on the road in the state of Kansas every day, the occurrence of 65,460 accidents in 2006 (49,241 of which were property damage-only [no injuries] and resulted in a mere 427 deaths) seems pretty reasonable. Figures based on 2006 statistics from The Kansas Highway Patrol. Whats more, most states - despite numerous additional safety laws being passed in the last few years and massive amounts of additional spending on traffic safety like Click It or Ticket. Here are the number of deaths in Kansas related to traffic accidents for the last few years: 1998 (493), 1999 (536), 2000 (461), 2001 (494), 2002 (507), 2003 (469), 2004 (459), 2005 (428) and 2006 (464). (Note: the KHP website shows two different numbers in two different places on the website for 2006 Fatal Accidents: 427 and 464. Its not clear which one is correct.)
What I am saying is this: the roads are as safe now as they’ll ever be. All things reach a peak to where no additional performance boosts can be had, or those that can be had are so minimal and the costs to achieve them so high that it simply is not worth while. I’m saying we are to that point with highway safety.