The South Carolina Safety Belt Law

The South Carolina Safety Belt Law

On December 9, 2005 the South Carolina Safety Belt Law was changed. The new law allows for primary enforcement of safety belt usage. Under the old secondary law an officer can only cite a motorist for a safety belt violation if the motorist has been stopped for another violation. Under the new primary law a law enforcement officer has the authority to stop a driver if the officer has a clear and unobstructed view of a driver or occupant of a motor vehicle not wearing a safety belt or not secured in a child restraint system. I feel that the changes that were made involving this law are very helpful when it comes to getting everyone to wear their safety belts.

Just the other night a co-worker and I got into a discussion about this law. He feels that no one should have the right to make him wear his seat belt if he doesn't want to. He believes that the seat belts in vehicles are not safe, he calls them death traps. He thinks that safest seat belt that you can wear is a 6 point safety harness. He said that if these were mandatory in vehicles that he would abide by this law. I personally do not see anything wrong with the seat belts that are in vehicles. I think that they have worked well in cars over the years so why change them to something as uncomfortable as a 6 point harness. If that was the type of seat belt that was installed in my car I would probably break the law and not wear it because of how uncomfortable they are.

After doing some more research I have discovered that my co-worker is not the only person who feels this way. I found many websites that are against the safety belt laws. One of the better websites was www.atch.com it is called Seatbelt Law Opposition Forum. The author, a William J. Holdorf states that some people have been more seriously injured and even killed only because of seat belt use. He also states that evidence of seat belt use increasing injuries or causing a person's death in certain kinds of traffic accidents is well documented in the hundreds of successful lawsuits filed against the auto makers since the advent of seat belt laws in 1985. Another good point that the author pointed out was the fact that there is a body of law that states a person has the right to refuse any personal health care device, drug, treatment, or surgery, even if such refusal might result in an earlier death or an increase in medical expenses. All seat belt laws, therefore, violate a person's