If it was just a private decision that did not affect anyone else I would have to agree that it should be left up to the individual.
I would prefer the stupid people to eliminate themselves anyway as there is an overpopulation of them.
I view it as evolution in action.
However, it does impact society. The average hospital cost alone is $5000 more for unbelted accidents than belted. Seatbelts reduce the risk of moderate to critical injury by an average of 50% in cars and 65% for the truck lovers in the group and fatalities by 45/60% respectively.
The costs to society go far beyond just the hospital medical bills though.
The taxpayer pays for a ton of all of this.
Twenty years ago a local supervisor used to tell of an incident where a driver not wearing his seatbelt in a parking lot leaned down to the right to try to recover his hat which had blown off and fell out.
He was fine beyond a little bruising.
Unfortunately the lady and her child who she was pushing in a shopping cart that was in the path of the free rolling, relatively slow moving package car were both killed.
I don't know if this was a factual story or one he made up, but then and now I can see something like that happening and that is the important point.
Laws don't prevent or make people wear seatbelts, but they do make them pay for their decisions.
Wish they would enforce the seatbelt laws more strenuously and significantly up the price of the fines to help pay for tax and insurance increases we incur from these individual's decision to not wear seatbelts.
