Ok, I've read HB 537 and it appears that they left out motorhomes. Read the text yourself at:
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/pdf/HB00537F.pdf (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/pdf/HB00537F.pdf)
After Sept 1 all occupants must be under a seat belt, not just front seat passengers. We all wear seat belts in the coach while traveling except when my wife goes to the potty or sits at the table to grab a snack from time to time.
It makes no sense that I can get a $175 fine for not wearing a seat belt, but I can ride a motorcycle without a helmet and 55 children on a school bus don't have to wear seat belts. I wish the gov't would quit trying to help me all the time. (Rant)
David
I never wore a seat belt until I became a Medic. The first couple vehicle ejections changed my mind. I wear mine because I know the dynamics of an accident first hand. Yes I piled up my Nissan but had my seat belt on and was able to resuscitate the woman who pulled out across the road in front of me.
HOWEVER, I hate the government telling how to do everything. I agree it sucks.
I agree David. Here is a great example how the government "helps" and "improves" things. Prime example. (Rant)
Matt, I also agree with you. I always wear my seatbelt, I just don't think that the government should mandate it!
God bless,
John
I agree, the more government the less freedom. How the heck did I make it to this age, I never wore a bike helmet when I was a kid. We ALWAYS rode in the back of a pickup if it wasn't freezing. The .22 I learned to shoot on didn't have a warning stamped in the barrel.
Just part of our spiraling decline.
As it is said, 'follow the money'. Who gets more money if we all wear seat belts? The insurance companys! Did your auto insurance rate drop as the new law went into effect?
Go git yer gun, it's dat durn lawyer agin! ;)
Render un to ceasar" I guess. I wear my skid lid on the Harley(state law mandates it), but on occasion (as soon as I cross the Dam)like to feel the rocks and the dust(oh and the wind)tearing through my scalp LOL. never had to in the begining,didn't have seat belts either .I wear my seat belt for the same reason (stae law) ,Here in Vegas there are so many high speed accidents on the interstate (I-15),most involve roll overs ,those that did not have theirs on were ejected window up or down makes no difference.
The point (and I agree with others) is it should be every ones choice, I suppose those days are gone :( apparently with each new generation comes a new set of laws (I blame it on rap music >:( LOL) and a new way of thinking (ripping you off!) who'd a thunk it :o
Quoteall occupants must be under a seat belt
I didn't get that from the text you linked, although perhaps it's in the surrounding context that this bill modifies.
What I read is that if someone is sitting in a seat equipped with a seatbelt, the seatbelt must be used. Which is pretty smart thing to do, of course.
I didn't see anything about seatbelts being required in all seating positions, at least in that code snippet.
OUR goverment only passed those laws for the people that didn't already know that is what they should do.
Jack
Hey, I am with you guys. I don't want a single stitch of Gummint that isn't absolutely required. Not even a shred!
Of course, learning that it took the combined efforts of the US Senate and Congress to make all the butchers across our fair nation STOP PUTTING ARSINIC on beef to keep it nice and pink to attract the consumer. No Lie! Not a single state would do it but all the guys they sent to DC voted for it with enthusiasm. What a bunch of hypocrites. The same with patent medicines....mercury and lead in children's cough syrup and wood alcohol in almost everything. Took the Fed creating a agency to stop that stuff. Named the Pure Food and Drug Act.....Food and Drug Administration! Now we all know that the food processors have our best interests at heart and would NEVER do anything that would make us sick or need a recall of millions of pounds of meat let alone a drug industry that would lie to us about the harm a med might do to us or our children. just would never ever happen in our great nation....again.
They have hundreds of books on these things and what caused the various agencies to come into existence. Hundreds! And, again, I swear that I don't want any more Fed Gummint than is absolutely required to guard me and mine from manufactures, products, poisons, mines, unsafe working conditions that make some fool a extra buck and lots of things. But not a single teensy weensy bit more than that. I can't handle AT&T and ENRON way way out of my league as an entity that I could bring to heel. Yep, I can handle myself and my own stuff and I always have but bearing down on 70 I don't scare nearly as many people as I used to and Corporations disdain me to a man. I just want the crap taken care of that is over my head and outta my league. Truly.
Now I did grab the jerk down the street by the throat the other day and march him back down the sidewalk whence he came the other day. He desperately wanted to uncork that haymaker he was trying to put together but when you are walking backwards and can't breath you have all sorts of mixed priorities. I was counting on that. All I said was "could you please pick up you dog $#!% from the lawn?" and I said it politely. His response was to tell me to go F myself in a rude manner and did that in front of my 5 foot tall librarian wifey. My limit is ONE of those. Then I got to talk to the nice policemen that explained Battery to me. Started off with Mr. Grabe and when they left it was "have a good day John". I don't know....it was still a stupid thing to do and wifey, whom I thought would be proud of her champion defending her honor, was absolutely ENRAGED .....at me. No, I don't want the Gummint in all my business....not just yet. "I hate rudeness in a man. I won't tolerate it." (Lonesome Dove)
Now if I could just get Exxon to bend over. I can't handle Iran or Osama either, come to think of it.
John
It's unnatural. Seat belt and helmet laws interfere with our ability to cull the herd...Cable
Yep I'd like to see them make the middle school kids buckle their seat belts on the school buses. I drove them for two years and never could. The seat belts were just decoration.
If it was a safety issue wouldn't they enforce the school bus? Move to Canada, our gov't even helps to not provide us with health care.
I tend to agree with allowing the government to let me kill myself if I want to. There is one other aspect to seat belts however, and that is to protect the other driver.
Race car drivers wear seat belts not so much for protection in an accident, but to keep them in control of a violently moving car. It's hard enough to control a car that is spinning out on the interstate, it's much harder when you are up against the passenger side door.
Len,
I can guarantee you that they weren't thinking of it that way. Good point though.
God bless,
John
Quote from: Len Silva on August 28, 2009, 09:09:07 AM
I tend to agree with allowing the government to let me kill myself if I want to. There is one other aspect to seat belts however, and that is to protect the other driver.
Race car drivers wear seat belts not so much for protection in an accident, but to keep them in control of a violently moving car. It's hard enough to control a car that is spinning out on the interstate, it's much harder when you are up against the passenger side door.
Before someone can control a violently moving car, they would need to be able to control the car in a normal situation.
I'm not that good of a driver, but from what I've seen, I'm way better than average. That worries me.
I look at the seat belt laws as simply making the first responder's job easier. Usually easier to spot a car than body parts. . .
As for the helmet law . . . I can see why someone might not want to live thru a bad case of asphalt rash . . .
Personally, I don't think it is anything more than some politicians/ lobbyist exercising their power over others. . . :(
From what I read, the helmet law was all about money. We were spending a huge amt of insurance and pauper protection money saving the lives of "riders" that dumped at low low speeds and cracked their head on the pavement or a curb as was the case with wifey's first husband. She supported him for 40 years or so because you can make a guy so weird with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that they are unemployable for life even though they may maintain an IQ that is way above the norm. Statistics were put together that identified the actual cost that caring for the "live free or die" folks with brain injuries represented. The insurance companies were crying "foul" at have to burden all of "US" with higher rates to cover avoidable injuries. Funny, the never dropped after the legislation that enacted helmet laws. Maybe if it had been a Federal Gummint law it would have been different.
In high school my cousin lost a friend to an accident involving a motorcycle. Sticks in my mind for a number of reasons the first of which is I still have a mind. The kid that had the accident was named Parela and he was riding a small two stroke bike called a Parella that was Italian, Blurred memory. Cous was speaking to Parela from the open window of a car and he was riding alongside at little more than a walking pace. As they said goodbye his front wheel scraped the curb and the bike abruptly laid down on it right side. He go a foot down and an arm out before he impacted the light pole in an "all fours" position. A lot like you would if you stumbled while jogging. Dead at the scene! Freak accident that a helmet might have prevented. We lost all the public funds invested in his 12 years of schooling.
I would be a big fan of riding without a helmet if things were a bit different. i am large on responsibility. Like pollution , as an example. I think those industrial birds should have to clean up their mess at their stockholder's expense and not get to write off the expense from their taxes as EXXON does the fines and costs for their poor judgement. Now, if those freedom riding Bikers could just get a tattoo or a chip implant that assures that an emergency room and ambulance staff WILL NOT treat them at Gummint(mine) expense, I think we would be well on our way to a solution. Those guys could buy "Special" insurance policies that reflect their expanded risk so that those costs could not be factored into my rates. Thinning the herd? Maybe but definitely creating more responsible and accountable behaviors. Now that is a conservative position and I am nothing if not a Conservative.
Those liberals call themselves civilized cause they force hospitals to treat all comers. I got news! My stepmother had her 20th heart attack while I was visiting. She had just the day before told me that she had a living will that should have prevented the "zealots" from reviving her the first time. She was tired of all the problems in her life and shared that her life was not a life and that Dad was always there to tell the responders to do all they could. I was of a different mind and I thought her wishes should prevail. They rushed her to the hospital in the ambulance with medics working feverishly on her. dad, again! I was the last to get to the hospital and met the ambulance crew as they were leaving. I asked if the emergency room crew had limited their efforts to simply making her comfortable as she had that Living will on file with the hospital? They said no, that the docs didn't know about that and she was already restarted and "hooked" up. They shrugged a "sorry, we didn't know" and they made to leave the driveway. I answered "what is the protocol for payment for those services cause the insurance company won't reimburse in a case where a Living Will is knowingly violated by medical staff that are billing for unauthorized service". I made that up. That ambulance driver's face went from "sorry with a shrug" to absolutely HORRIFIED. He spun on his heel and ran back into the hospital with a "holy $#!%" hanging in the air as he left. Humanitarian motives...Ha. Professional responsibility....what a joke. Can't pay,,,,they pulled the plug...as she had requested and the family had been demanding. She still lived, unassisted, for two days with no brain activity whatsoever thanks to their initial efforts.
This is about money folks. Always has been and always will be so long as we have medical service that is based of fees for service. How about water for sale....to the highest bidder, now. What do you think? "Those water companies should be allowed to...."can't you just hear the water company's spin doctors spiel. Freedom!!! to the water companies.
Next!
John the conservative
Quote from: fe2_o3 on August 27, 2009, 08:37:54 PM
It's unnatural. Seat belt and helmet laws interfere with our ability to cull the herd...Cable
How true, how true.......
We have a new law in Florida also, they can now stop you for a seat belt violation alone.
Personally on this one, I don't care.
I wear my seat belt and would wear a helmet even if it wasn't mandated(helmets are not required for adults)
These laws tend to affect the under 30 crowd the most anyway, after that the majority have wised/matured up anyway, or the culling starts to take effect, as Cable pointed out.
Cliff
I think it should be a personal choice to wear a helmet.
I will tell you this, I'm sure glad my brother did when he had a terrible accident in the 70's, I was riding my 650 BSA at the time behind him after we had a beautiful ride through the hills around Silver Creek Falls in OR. If it wasn't for his helmet, it would have scraped half of his head off. As it was it did wear a hole in the helmet he was wearing.
I would wear one myself if I get back into it. Here in TX you see about 90% that don't, remainder that do. It's all about personal choice, whether you choose to have a better survial rate, or lay in a hospital bed tied to tubes. Most crashes with bikes, it doesn't really matter, it just increases the odds a bit in your favor.
Whatever happened to "Freedom of Choice"? The insurance companies can be thanked for that. Oh well. I don't care what the reason is, it is always about money!
Paul
There are as many bike related deaths because of helmets as there are because of the lack of one. The weight of many helmets are the cause of broken necks and when the head is forced back the base of many helmets cause broken necks also. I would expect a lot of flame on this but the government produces the numbers not I. From My time wearing a 7.5 pound flying helmet in the USAF I can tell You that My current neck problems probably are the result of the dam things. Funny enough after many years the flying folks have a new light weight helmet with a collar to prevent neck injuries. If I could still ride I would wear a helmet, but regardless of My choice the old myth about all of the people lying in hospitals because of the lack of a helmet is bunk pure and simple. my take. Regards John