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"YOUR PAPERS PLEASE?"State wants 75% compliance

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited May 2002 in General Discussion
State wants 75% compliance



Wednesday, May 01, 2002

BY FRANK COZZOLI
Of The Patriot-News


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Officers from 200 police departments across the state will participate this month in a program to boost seat-belt use that includes random safety checkpoints.

The checkpoints will be on roads with high crash rates and those identified by the state as being used by unlicensed drivers or illegal vehicles, said Richard S. Shaffer, the commonwealth's statewide law enforcement liaison.

The roads that will be the focus of the checkpoints were not identified.

"Let me make it clear, the traffic-safety checkpoints are not seat-belt checkpoints," Shaffer said. "We're out there to identify motorists who are unlicensed and vehicles that are unregistered, uninspected or uninsured."

State police, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and others yesterday kicked off a initiative called "Click It or Ticket" to increase seat-belt use.

"It's not about writing tickets -- it's about saving lives," said PennDOT Secretary Bradley L. Mallory.

All front-seat riders, regardless of age, must be buckled up, according to state law.

But failure to be buckled is a "secondary" offense. Motorists must have committed an initial infraction, such as speeding, to be pulled over and cited.

Pennsylvania's seat-belt compliance rate is at 70.5 percent. Officials want to see that boosted to 75 percent this month.

State Police Commissioner Col. Paul J. Evanko said too many people haven't gotten the buckle-up message.

"So we've got another message: If you're stopped for a traffic violation such as speeding and you're not buckled up, you're going to get two tickets," Evanko said.

Shaffer said the "Click It or Ticket" effort is part of the an ongoing "Buckle Up PA" project.

Drivers who pass through the checkpoints will be cited for seat-belt violations "without hesitation" if they're also being cited for an initial offense, Shaffer said.

May also is prom season. Officials are most concerned about teen-age drivers, particularly males ages 16 to 18. "They tend to be the risk takers in society," Mallory said.

Chad Bear, 19, of Newville, was one of them.

On July 6, 1999, two days before he turned 17, Bear had a brush with death when the car in which he was riding crashed in Lancaster County.

Bear, who was thrown from the car, spent six days in a coma in a Lancaster hospital. He said he was in rehabilitation for a month before he realized what had happened.

Bear said he didn't wear a seat belt to be "cool" around his friends. Now, he's helping PennDOT push the seat belt message.

"Your life can be taken in a few seconds, hundredths of seconds, actually," he said. FRANK COZZOLI: 975-9797 or fcozzoli@patriot-news.com

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/10202455181978654.xml


"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Comments

  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    If it saves just one life...

    It's for the children...

    Law-abiding people have nothing to fear...

    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
  • SixStringerSixStringer Member Posts: 131 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    License and registartion please comrade.
  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    What the hell is a "registartion????"

    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
  • gunpaqgunpaq Member Posts: 4,607 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Just get that chip implanted in everyones wrist then your papers will always be in order. Will saves lives, cut down on paper, save time, etc., etc., oh how wonderfull. If you don't buckle up the chip in your wrist will remind you by a sharp stinging sensation.

    Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
  • badboybobbadboybob Member Posts: 1,658 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If you don't wear a seat belt, and require your passengers to do the same you are GD IDIOT!

    PC=BS
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Between the ages of 17 and 23 I was involved in 7 BAD accidents(most of them my fault!) and I have yet to put a belt on. The last one was in a '88 Olds Cutlass Front wheel drive car, while racing( I know it was stupid) on a windy hilly road against a Mazda RX7(yes I was losing) I topped a small hill with a turn on it and the back end of the car didn't want to race anymore. I spun completely around and hit a tree with the trunk of the car at over 80MPH. No belt and I didn't get so much as a bruise.

    Seat belts along with Motorcycle helmets need to be CHOICE! If I want to take a chance with MY life and not wear a belt or a helmet it should be MY choice not big brother. I know the dangers of it and even though I have been LUCKY I still choose personal freedom of choice over someone telling me to buckle up. I will pay every seatbelt ticket I get, I still aint puttin one on. It's my choice and if they don't like too bad!
  • thesoundguy1thesoundguy1 Member Posts: 680
    edited November -1
    Buckling-up is common sense.It's not the job of government to legislate common sense.There is a bigger message in saving lives...
    DEAD PEOPLE DON'T PAY TAXES!!!!
  • simonbssimonbs Member Posts: 994
    edited November -1
    7mm Nut, the reason why it is not a choice (for people over age of 18) is because TAX PAYERS help foot the bill for vegetables on life support. Its real easy to become a vegetable in a vehicle crash - happens every day. And, I for one, don't want to pay someone else's hospital bills because it was 'there choice'.

    I'm not afraid of the dark...the dark is afraid of me!
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    That's what insurance is for. Isnt that why we pay for insurance? The State of New Hampshire has a great seatbelt law, if you are over 18 it's CHOICE! That's the way it should be.
  • simonbssimonbs Member Posts: 994
    edited November -1
    Do you realize how many people in this country HAVE NO INSURANCE? Who do you think pays those bills? Do you know how MEDICARE is funded?

    Its all tax dollars.

    I'm not afraid of the dark...the dark is afraid of me!
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Why not crack down on those people instead of messing with someone for not wearing a belt?!?!?!?! Should I be forced to wear a belt because some numbnuts decided he didnt need insurance? I don't think so! Just like a bunch of other problems we the people have, we are forced one again to be inconvienanced for someone elses stupidity! I don't care what anyone says, I aint wearin that belt! I don't like it, it's a pain and it's just outright annoying. Now if you want ot wear it, go ahead, nothing is stopping you but if I don't want to wear it I am not going to, I don't care how many tickets they issure. And Pa has a little deal called CAT fund, it used to be charged on the registration but now is charged in tickets. Do you know what the CAT fund is and what it's for?
  • simonbssimonbs Member Posts: 994
    edited November -1
    I'm talking about people who are legally on Medicare and have liability only insurance. We pay those medical bills. There is nothing to 'crack down on'.

    What is the CAT fund?

    I'm not afraid of the dark...the dark is afraid of me!
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Car insurance has to pay for medical bills, we found that out when my sone got hit by an uninsured drunk a couple years ago. Our insurance picked up the tab.

    The Cat fund was set up for uninsured motorist. It is there to fund medical bills when insurance is non existant. Problem with it is you need a lawyer to dip into it to pay for the bills.
  • SixStringerSixStringer Member Posts: 131 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Car insurance only pays medical bills if it isn't your fault. I could be wrong, but I think that's how it works.
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Your own insurance picks up your medical bills. If another party is at fault then your company will go after their insurance for reimbursment. Now if you have no insurance the is where the CAT fund kicks in. Cat fund will not pay insurance companies but cover the emergency treatment for the person involved. It's a complicated process and I'm not sure how it all works but in PA your automaticly covered in an accident either thru your coverage or the CAT fund.
  • LightningLightning Member Posts: 945 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm with 7mm on this one.
    If I choose to wear or not to wear a belt it is my business.
    NOT the governments.
    Same for a helmet.
  • gskyhawkgskyhawk Member Posts: 4,773
    edited November -1
    I'm agree 120% with 7mm and Lightning, its all about personal freedom
  • gunpaqgunpaq Member Posts: 4,607 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    The guy who hit me headon 5 years ago was not wearing a seatbelt and only had liability insurance. He is a vegetable (an awfull price to pay for talking on a cell phone while driving) being kept in a nursing home paid for by my company's insurance and the CAT Fund. I was wearing a seat belt which directly caused my spinal injuries and crippled me for life - it was a lap belt in an older lumber truck. Had I been wearing a modern seat belt I still would have been busted up but no spinal injuries and had I not been wearing one at all I would not be writting this now and the other guy may or may not have a room mate. Closure was 100 mph + with a 40 ton truck meeting a 2 ton car headon - without restraints, as the other driver proved, one could easily become a hood ornament.

    Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
  • DupontDupont Member Posts: 129
    edited November -1
    I agree on the bucle up part! But getting a ticket, NO!
    It's a $60 fine in colo.
    Personaly I think it's just a greedy goverment looking to make a quick buck.
    just my 2 cents
  • BlueTicBlueTic Member Posts: 4,072
    edited November -1
    Is the point here - seatbelts - or "safety checks"? Ok - sure officer - we are all guilty until you prove otherwise - just pull over and show me your papers - Can you say NO. Same as an illegal search.....

    IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)
  • instrumentofwarinstrumentofwar Member Posts: 1,545 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Let me get this straight....

    quote:But failure to be buckled is a "secondary" offense. Motorists must have committed an initial infraction, such as speeding, to be pulled over and cited.

    Is this nationwide? This may sound like a stupid question, but I have never heard of this before. I was riding with 13fister and we passed a hitchhiker on the on ramp to I85. Turns out that "hitchhiker" was a cop in plainclothes with a radio to call the staties who were parked under the bridge. I have also been riding in vehicles and seen squads pass us, turn around, and flash their disco's because "I didn't see you wearing your seatbelts".

    Now are these illegal stops? And if so what can you do?

    Some people just shouldn't be allowed to breed
  • SawzSawz Member Posts: 6,049
    edited November -1
    IW
    it depends on the state some states are now going to primary offense where lots are still secondary


    "Respect your Tools"
    "Freedom is not Free"
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