Buckle Up! No, Really.

What’s the best thing for lawmakers to do in a time of financial crisis? That’s right: Toughening the seat-belt law. Okay, the state legislature can probably do two things at once, so that’s probably an unfair statement.

Our wonderful commonwealth is one of 15 states considering passing tougher seat-belt laws allowing police officers to pull over and ticket people not wearing their seat belts; currently, the law can only be enforced as an add-on when a police officer pulls a driver over for another traffic violation.

By making the seat-belt law a primary violation, the state would be able to save billions of lives or something. But more importantly for state lawmakers, making the seat-belt law primary would qualify the state for extra federal funds; the law must be in place by June 30 and cops have to start handing out citations by Sept. 30 in order to get the funds.

This awesome over-the-top column in the Nashua Telegraph — which calls the state’s proposed primary seat-belt law “Big Brother” — says there will no doubt be roadblocks set up in order to catch seat belt absconders, at least in the Live Free or Die state.

Lawmakers are wary of passing the primary seat-belt law, even though it would give the state some free highway money. (There’s no word on how much, yet.) Tom Caltagirone, a state rep from Reading, tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he’s wary: “I encourage the use of seat belts but do we have to criminalize every little behavior? Are we going overboard? Where do we draw the line? It’s for your own protection, but at some point we have to trust that people will use their own judgment.”

It’s amazing that people support every sort of law criminalizing consensual crimes but argue against seat belt laws, the biggest consequence of which is a delayed trip and a fine. But, hey, every person thinks he’s a good driver, too.

Photo by jnandesant used under a Creative Commons license

City Council To Regulate Buses, Dentists

The Inquirer’s Heard in the Hall blog reports on the lame duck City Council session that begins today. Any bills not passed during the three-week session will have to be introduced when the new council is sworn in next year, which is pretty much the same group of people anyway.

Still, it’s a pain to get legislation introduced or something, so City Council is rushing to get a whole boatload of bills passed. Blondell Reynolds Brown wants to pass a bill “that would require dentists to provide some degree of disclosure about the mercury contained in fillings.” Brown also wants to ban kids from fundraising in the street, which means the police are going to get to arrest little kids or something. Hilarious! Darrell Clarke wants to make it illegal to burn a cross or hang a noose.

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