Getting belted in Antigo
by Albus
Judging by what I see daily in the Copp’s and Wal-Mart parking
lots, many folks in Antigo think Wisconsin’s auto seatbelt laws don’t apply to them. By logical extension, they must also think the Law of Inertia (“A moving object tends to keep moving in the same direction until some force is applied to it.”) also doesn’t apply, so
they really don’t need to use their seatbelts. So they toss their shopping bags in the back seat, their kids in the front seat, and zoom off with nary a single seatbelt click.
I would estimate, based on diligent count, that an undercover cop
positioned in a suitable observation point in or near these lots
could write upwards of 20 tickets an hour for seatbelt violations.
What a windfall this could be for Antigo’s struggling municipal
financial aspirations!
While some may argue that adults are entitled to place themselves
in harm’s way if they want to, this sacred “Freedom to be an idiot”
is usually reserved for smoking and for motorcycling without a helmet and really shouldn’t be extended to children. The law says
that children in a moving vehicle must be appropriately restrained. Perching a toddler up on the console between a pickup truck’s bucket seats seems to fall seriously short of “appropriate restraint”, in my humble opinion.
Perhaps the penalty of $137 or so for not seatbelting a child is too
light to deter this form of neglect. How about reclassifying the
violation as “child abuse”, or even better as “reckless
endangerment”, a far more accurate description of the behavior? A couple of convictions of reckless endangerment for not seatbelting kids would focus the public’s erratic attention on the issue, since
the penalty for reckless endangerment is 12 to 17 years in prison.
“Do the crime, do the time,” as the saying goes.
..
i seatbelt my kids everytime they get in a vehicle and it still bothers me that buses do not need to use them, why?. r they not meant to save lives, that is the reason and bus accidents have been on the rise due to careless drivers. if we have to wear our seatbelts in a car children in buses should have to wear them also.
I agree, why is it that our most precious cargo need no seatbelts on school buses???
And while we’re on the subject of school buses . . . should the bus drivers be allowed to smoke on the bus? I’m not a parent of a student in our school system, but if I were . . . .
NO, they shouldn’t be allowed to smoke around our children and wasn’t aware that they are able to do that!
They aren’t. It’s school property. If they are I would report them to the school district.
If Albus were to invest a little more time in observing the efficiency of law enforcement officials rather than suggesting covert outposts for undercover cops he would rapidly realize that his math is an impossible dream. It may be that I have spent a larger percentage of my life on the wrong side of the law, but I can recall, with all too painful clarity, that once a cop retires to his squad with my drivers license, registration, and insurance card in his possession, it takes between twelve and twenty minutes for him to return to my vehicle with the dreaded citation.
This indicates to me that said cop would only be able to write between three and five citations per hour, assuming there were no interruptions that needed his attention, like fender benders, shoplifters, children having fun, unattended do-nuts, etc.). A little short of the extravagant twenty.
Smackwater, might I suggest that the urgency of the situation, if the “law enforcement officials” in question could rise to the occasion, would create a move to efficiency. I’ve seen (all right — been abused by) very comprehensive check-off forms for non-moving violations that list the entire gamut of possible illegalities, from over-time to too-close-to-crosswalk to parking-in-waiting-zone. The “arresting officer” needs simply to check the violation in question, fill in the license number, and move on to the next criminal. The office minions take care of the tracking paperwork. Why not have a simple tear-off form for seatbelt violators, with mail-in confession and penalty payment, that could list the car or truck’s license number as the sole identifier?
Kim and Sherry . . . bus drivers are allowed to smoke on the school bus, as long as there are no kids on at the time — of course not on school property, but when they’re not on school property and the bus is empty, they can. Check it out . . . I did.
This is enough to make a grown man (me) cry:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/25/tennessee.crash.ap/index.html
Story is, “4 high school cheerleaders killed in Tennessee crash”. From the story, “… a preliminary report indicated none of the girls in the SUV was wearing a seat belt….”
and how about the three school buses that collided none of them were wearing one either, and they didnt have the choice of whether to put them on or not. whether they died or not, they were still injured!
So if I have a standard cab truck were should I strap the kid in? In the box? People need to spend more time looking at what they do wrong instead of everyone else i mean really if you wernt tailgatting me at 60 MPH an yapping on your cell phone that pileup might never have happened morons
har har says, “So if I have a standard cab truck were should I strap the kid in? In the box?”
Naw…. That would be illegal. Of course, it’s ALSO illegal to let the kid rattle around unrestrained in the cab, too. Looks like you have a problem with the Law, not with me.
“People need to spend more time looking at what they do wrong,,,,”
Excellent advice. Now, try applying it to the kid-in-the-cab problem.
Leave your kid in the box…when you wreck and kill the kid it’ll just prove that natural selection and survival of the fittest are still in full force. Better yet, let the kid drive and you sit in the box. The kid might still have a chance in life without being guided by an idiot parent.
har har says, “…really if you wernt tailgatting me at 60 MPH an yapping on your cell phone …”
Yeah, that was me. I had to get close enough to get your license number right, while I was reporting you speeding with an unrestrained child in the cab. You can expect the traffic ticket in the mail any day now. See you in court!
im suprized they caught anyone theyre to busy haning out parking tickets down town
It only takes two minutes to write a parking ticket, that leaves plenty of time for them to do something else.
I think that one person has the job of writing parking tickets downtown. I see her walking every now and again marking tires.