Seat belts in Massachusetts

[anhinga_anhinga]

"The Massachusetts House, in a dramatic reversal, voted Tuesday to kill a controversial seat belt bill that would have allowed police to pull over drivers and cite them solely for not wearing seat belts.

Police can now cite drivers for not buckling up only if they pull them over for some other reason.

The 80-76 vote is an about-face for the House, which had voted to approve the bill in January by a narrow 76-74 margin. The Senate backed the bill by a wide margin after debating it last week. [...]"

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/23/house_in_dramatic_reversal_votes_against_primary_seat_belt_bill/

Comments

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

After more thought, I don't agree with the personal responsibility argument, as long as fines for seat belt violations effectively only amount to a moderate tax, although imposed in a strange way, and don't contribute to the loss of driving privileges..

Basically, imposing moderate taxes for socially harmful things is OK in my book..