Bruce MacMahon for State Representative
Rockingham District 10 - Brentwood
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Help
me work to keep New Hampshire prosperous and free by bringing back common
sense ideas and solutions that work in the best interest of The People. |
Seat Belt Laws (click here to return
to the Home Page)
While I believe that the
decision to wear a seat belt is a smart decision to make, I stand firm in my
belief that it is up to the adult individual to make that decision, and not the
state. Politicians who support such laws will invariably talk about public
safety and hide behind the mantra “It’s for the children!” when it’s the
possibility of opening up a new revenue stream for the state that really
drives their desires. As is often the case, it
can be very informational to look to our neighbors to the south to see the
real-life impact that laws of this nature have on the public. The most recent
report on seal belt usage released by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (in April
2009) shows that New Hampshire drivers have a higher rate of seat belt
use than their Massachusetts counterparts, despite the fact that
Massachusetts has had a mandatory seat belt law on the books for quite a few
years now. In fact, New Hampshire
saw the second highest increase from the previous year in seat belt use
nationwide, jumping 5.4% to almost 70%. During that same period, seat belt
use in Massachusetts dropped almost 2% to 66.8%. Through educational
outreach, New Hampshire has been very successful in getting people to buckle
up without imposing punitive fines, restricting the individual’s right to
choose, or unnecessarily increasing the workload of local police departments
already stretched to their budgetary limits. As your state
representative, I will work to defeat any future attempts to pass mandatory
seat belt laws in New Hampshire. I simply don’t buy the argument that seat
belt laws will save the state money by reducing health care costs, as that
line of reasoning is predicated on the belief that the government is in
charge of providing individuals with health care. Further, to help expose
the real motivation – the generation of revenue - behind these mandatory seat
belt laws, should such a bill make it into any future committee hearings, I
will introduce an amendment that would set the amount of the fine at ten
dollars and make that fine payable to the local charity of the offender's
choosing. If, as the proponents of
such legislation would have us believe, the purpose of the bill were to
improve public safety, then, surely, they wouldn’t have a problem with such
an amendment, right? And, yes, that was a
rhetorical question. ~ Bruce |
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