Is it me, or do some people purposely SEARCH for things to complain about?   Today, while reading my wonderful, talented, and extremely handsome boyfriend's latest novel, I stopped to check some facts online. In his book, someone dies in a car crash after their seatbelt snaps in two. Intrigued and confused as to how this happened (since seatbelts are made to withstand extreme amounts of pressure) I wandered over to Yahoo to find some facts about seatbelts. I came across another site instead. It was a site written by a man who is against seatbelt laws. [click here to read]

"State mandatory seatbelt harness laws are unconstitutional. They infringe on a person’s individual rights as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, namely, the Fourth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments,” the man writes. He urges citizens to stand up to the big bad EVIL government and protest this horrific invasion of privacy and choice.

He argues that there are people who die BECAUSE they were wearing their seatbelts and that because of these people the government is forcing people to RISK THEIR LIVES by ordering them to wear seatbelts. "The fact is, the government has no constitutional authority to willingly and knowingly maim and kill some people through forced seatbelt use, just because the government hopes others will be saved merely by chance."

Hmmm… Maybe he’s right. I mean, the government really does put us in quite the predicament when it asks us to buckle up. I’m sure the big bad officers who write tickets really do intend to “maim and kill” us when they scribble a ticket to those that do not obey the stupid, pointless law (In 38 states, by the way, an officer is not allowed to issue a citation for not wearing a seatbelt UNLESS he’s already pulled you over for another offense and notices that you’re not buckled up).

Or maybe this guy’s an idiot.

73% of people who were in fatal crashes in 2001 and were restrained by a seatbelt survived. Only 44% of those who were not wearing a seatbelt survived. [NHTSA, Annual Assessment of Motor Vehicle Crashes]

In the past 26 years, safety belts prevented 135,000 fatalities and 3.8 million injuries, saving $585 billion in medical and other costs. If all vehicle occupants had used safety belts during that period, nearly 315,000 deaths and 5.2 million injuries could have been prevented - and $913 billion in costs saved. [NHSTA, Economic Impact of Crashes, 2002]

Gee… I don’t know about you, but those statistics sure make me want to “click it” every time I get into my car.

“The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have confirmed a person has the right to determine his/her own individual personal health care standards.”  AWESOME! I had no idea!!! Soooo the article that I just read this week stating that the U.S. Supreme Court has just federally banned the use of medicinal marijuana, no longer allowing states to choose whether or not they want to permit their doctors to prescribe the drug to dying cancer patients who are suffering, was a lie??? YES!!! I had no idea the government allowed us to do whatever we wanted to our bodies!!

But, ummm, Miss Dutchess Ma’am - Wearing a seatbelt should be a personal decision! It should not be forced because it only affects that ONE person! Our government is spending our money to support their cause. Just like the man you keep referring to wrote in his little online essay: “Such laws are an unwarranted intrusion by government into the personal lives of citizens… Federal candidates for office should be told that they will not be supported unless they promise to stop the current annual spending of millions of federal taxes in support of seatbelt laws.”

Ooooooo REALLY? Seatbelt use is a PERSONAL, private matter and our tax dollars should not be used to support a law that enforces the government’s belief?

Motor vehicle crashes in 2000 cost a total of $230.6 billion, an amount equal to 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product, or $820 for every living person in the United States. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of Crashes, 2002]

In 2000, the economic cost to society was more than $977,000 for each crash fatality and an average of $1.1 million for each critically injured person. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of Crashes, 2002]

The general public pays nearly three-quarters of all crash costs, primarily through insurance premiums, taxes, delays and lost productivity. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of Crashes, 2002]

No offense, but I don’t feel like having my medical insurance premiums raised because some asshole refused to wear his seatbelt and flew through his windshield, causing horrific damage to his body which Blue Cross had to cover, even though his injuries could have been prevented if he just freaking wore his damn seatbelt.

Let’s say I’m driving home from work today. A woman is driving home from picking her children up from school. She sees a yellow light up ahead. “Damn it,” she thinks. “I can beat it.” Although the light is red by the time she reaches the intersection, she runs right through it. Meanwhile, I, seeing a green light, drive through the intersection and run right into the woman’s car. Her seven-year-old child, sitting in the front seat without a seatbelt on, flies through the windshield and slams onto the pavement, dying instantly. Even though it was the woman’s fault that she ran through the red light and didn’t buckle up her child, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life that I had been part of taking a child’s life.

Do me a favor the Mr. Anti-Stupid-Things of the world. Save your breath. Or you could end up like Derek Kieper.

Derek Kieper was anti-seatbelts. More specifically, he was anti-seatbelt requirement laws (Read Derek’s editorial from this past September that was printed in his college’s newspaper): “Uncle Sam is not here to regulate every facet of life no matter the consequences… Democrats and Republicans alike should stand together to stop these laws that are incongruous with the ideals of both parties."

Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died on January 10, 2005, when the Ford Explorer he was a passenger in traveled off an icy section of Interstate 80 and rolled several times in a ditch. Kieper, who was riding in the back seat of the Explorer, was ejected from the vehicle. Two others in the vehicle, including the driver, Luke Havermann of Ogallala, and the front-seat passenger, Nick Uphoff of Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Havermann and Uphoff were wearing seatbelts at the time. Derek, who was thrown from the vehicle, was not wearing a seatbelt…