Law

The General Laws of Massaachusetts Section 13A states " No person shall operate a private passenger motor vehicle or ride in a private passenger motor vehicle, a vanpool vehicle or truck under eighteen thousand pounds on any way unless such person is wearing a safety belt which is properly adjusted and fastened..." This campaign otherwise known as "click it or ticket" has become quite a controversy among drivers. The truth of the matter is, that Massachusetts couldnt have come up with a better way to keep drivers safe. With this law now there are more drivers wearing seatbelts, for the simple fear of getting a ticket. If fining is what it takes to save peoples lives then Massachusetts has every right to pass this law.

Believe it or not but Massachusetts had the lowest rate of saftety belt users when compared to 47 states in the U.S. (Craven,par1).In September of 2003 The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration even found how Massachusetts rate of safety

belt use was onky 62 percent when the nations rate was 79. This is horrible and embaressing. What didn't

help is that massachusetts had the secondary law that enabled cops too ticket drivers for not wearing their seatbelt, unless they were already pulled over for another reson. Alot of drivers took advantage of this, they felt untouchable and felt no pressure to wear a seaatbelts.

Untill now it seems, drivers were ignoring how dangerous driving without a seatbelt was. The tragec stories about the deaths that were occurring

due to the absence of seatbelts seemed to be endless, in Massachusetts, 82 percent of of people between the ages of 16-24, and 83 persent of people between

18 and 34 were killed or serioulsy injuredin crashes where seatbelts were not worn.(Craven,par11). This must be disturbing to drivers, and more to the law makers that were allowing this to cintinue. This is why they had to step in and take matter into their own hands. Drivers should not be complaining, they should be thankful, By forcing drivers to wear their seatbelts so many serious injuruies and deaths are being prevented. Its sad to see that drivers feel that its, their choice to wear a seatbelt, and drivers are hesitant

and forgetful when it comes to wearing a seatblet,knowing how helpful it is during accidents.

Thanks to this "Click it or Ticket" campaign, seatbelt usage went up 11 percent in the first year of the campaign said an officer by the name of Chippman. This is very meaningful because

it