New Hampshire, the only state without a mandatory seat belt law, seems on track to narrowly pass one.
The New Hampshire House narrowly passed a bill that would make not wearing your seat belt a "primary offense," meaning police could pull over drivers for not wearing a seat belt, even if no other problems exist with their vehicle or their driving.New Hampshire is the only state in the US without a mandatory seat belt law, and has resisted passing one for over 15 years. Proponents of the bill say that it will bring down traffic fatalities, of which New Hampshire has some of the lowest in the country.
Opponents of the bill see it as another creeping attempt by "Big Brother" to legislate the way people behave. One lawmaker said on the floor of the N.H. Senate, "Treat adults like adults. This is a matter of personal choice."
The question here is not whether people should use safety belts, but whether the state legislature should mandate that people use them.
The bill would fine $50 on the first offense and $100 per offense thereafter.
It all begs the question of how protected from ourselves we need to be as a people. Should we "Live Free and Die," or sacrifice that little bit of freedom for protection from our own irresponsibility?
Massachusetts, New Hampshire's neighbor to the South, has a mandatory seat belt law. Sixty-five percent of drivers in Mass use their seat belt.
New Hampshire, which has no mandatory seat belt law, has 64 percent usage.
One legislator asked, "If Massachusetts jumped off a bridge, would we then vote to jump off a bridge?"
