Proposed Primary Seatbelt Law
Is a Travesty Waiting To Happen

In all likelihood, citizens of Massachusetts will witness another legislative travesty this coming Tuesday, May 16^th, when the state Senate is supposed to take up the question of whether or not to make wearing seat belts while driving a primary offense.

The chances are it will pass – it recently squeaked by the state House of Representatives – because it is flying under the banner of political correctness, but it is in all ways incorrect.

It is primarily wrong because it shows the legislature’s utter contempt for the citizens of Massachusetts who repeatedly made it clear, including by state-wide ballot, that they did not want a mandatory seat belt law, period. But the proponents of legislating seat belt use didn’t gracefully take no for an answer; instead they went to the legislature and managed to get a law passed that is now on the books making it a secondary offense not to wear a seat belt.

This means that a driver can only be ticketed for failure to wear a seat belt if he or she has been stopped for another reason. The proponents of this legislation swore up and down that they would never return and ask for the law to become a primary offense, where police can stop a driver for just a seatbelt violation.

But of course they lied. Politically correct people seem to indeed believe the end justifies the means, especially if somehow the issue is connected to safety. There is a strong and misguided hope among some people that cradle to grave security can be legislated, but of course that cannot be accomplished even if everyone’s life was regulated and monitored from the time the person got up in the morning to when he or she retired for the night. Life is full of chances, good and bad, and supposedly free, adult citizens should have the free will to make their own choices, for their own reasons.

Unfortunately, people like Sen. Mark C.W. Montigny, D-New Bedford, seem to see issues such as seatbelts as a way to dictate terms to their fellow citizens. Sen. Montigny is the current proponent of this upcoming legislation, and it seems reasonable to suspect he thinks this is an issue upon which he can’t lose; that is, he can appear as a safety advocate trying to do the politically correct thing, and who would dare to contradict that position. But what he is really doing is strapping his fellow citizens with one more personally intrusive law, while vesting the police with vastly increased powers.

The seatbelt issue is far from black and white, good against evil, common sense against irresponsibility. The seatbelt discussion is, like usual, rooted in money and power, and there are many shades of gray. (See earlier Bradley Report seat belt stories).

This entire travesty is an example of why a growing minority of honest, thinking citizens find themselves losing respect for the legislature. An issue can be decided at the ballot box, and then special interests can move the legislature to by-pass and overlook the will of the voters, coating the entire process with political correctness and the great mantra of increased safety. The technique is wearing thin, yet it is very likely we will feel its effects again this week.

It would be refreshing to see the Senate have the courage to turn its back on Mr. Montigny and his bill, but it doesn’t look likely. Instead it seems likely there will be one more reason to feel constrained and beleaguered, and to fear the ever-increasing power of police in our society.