They’re After New Hampshire
By James Baxter, NMA President
New Hampshire has been a thorn in the side of the command and control safety establishment for decades. Since the 1970’s the safety commandos have preached that mandatory seatbelt laws and seatbelt use will prevent the decimation of Western Civilization as we know it.
Using the incremental approach, starting with belt and car seat mandates for children and patiently proceeding through secondary enforcement for adults, higher fines, primary enforcement, still higher fines, jail for recalcitrant parents, and seatbelt roadblocks, they are close to achieving their dream, a 100 percent belted America.
Then there’s that unfinished business; New Hampshire, a state with no belt law, not even a secondary enforcement version. Doubly maddening is the state’s consistent ranking as one of the safest in the nation when it comes to highway fatalities.
It’s not that New Hampshire drivers and passengers universally shun seatbelts, they don’t. Reportedly, 70 percent of the driving/passenger population regularly wears seat belts. The annoying thing is that they do this without being threatened with arrest and subsequent penalties.
State authorities are even denied the pleasure of plastering the roadsides with “click it or ticket” signs. This runs counter to the preferred authoritarian approach favored by safety advocates the world round.
The residents of New Hampshire have held on, defied the odds, and remained free of belt laws. But, the land of “Live Free or Die” is under insidious siege. It is being smothered by immigrants and its principles are being diluted down to the common denominator of “if it brings another buck to government coffers let’s do it.” No, it’s not Mexicans, Russians, or Nigerians, not even Canadians, it’s the refugees from Massachusetts!
Taxed and regulated to death, those that could have left the land of the Kennedys and the “Big Dig.” They pushed into New Hampshire for sanctuary and now they have taken over state government. As so often happens, the immigrants seem to forget why they left the fatherland in the first place and set out to make their new home just as oppressive as the one they left.
Maybe, just maybe, whatever it is in the water in New Hampshire that has kept the state defiantly free, until now, will begin to work on the minds of the newcomers and cause them to shed their old ways. However, if they stick to bottled water we, as a nation, will lose the shining example that proves human beings do not have to be commanded, coerced, and punished to act in their own best interests. New Hampshire’s new motto will become “Nanny Government Knows Best.”
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me personality i wear my seat belt 90% of time even when i tell myself i don't i still do
fleet- i don't consider new hampshire the worst drivers at all though i agree with the tailgate is bad and i seen a lot of mass,maine drivers do that a lot more than nh. I don't know if the safest.
Before everyone hated new Hampshire now they come to us…
Herny- are roads are and getting money to re -fix them we can't update are speed limits the more you speed the worst the road gets. updating a speed limit shouldn't be a ground of "freedom" you view and btw there are roads that go above 65 mph on high ways nice try.
fleet – the smaller bus you are suppose to wear seatbelts in those, nwo for bigger bus there not enough for students for everyone. you can have three to a seat, its packed plus the seats are high for a "reason" i don't know the laws for other schools in other states. but i do agree that student should wear seatbelts.
Maybe the reason we have been able to beat off seat belt laws in New Hampshire is because of the Free State Project. Freedom-lovers have been moving there for years in an attempt to restore freedom in some part of the country.
I don't have the web page, but you can probably Google.
How do we get them to implement New Hampshire style laws everywhere else? I like the idea of friendly – non-authoritarian enforcement of seat belt laws.
Dave
No, I would not prefer an expletive!
What I would like and expect for myself and other commentators is civility, mutual respect, and a degree of manners.
I will make NO further comments on this website as it seems none of this is forthcoming.
Would you rather me use an expletive? Because there are WORSE things they deserve to be called besides idiot. There is NO argument. The facts have been proven. Europe has better headlight/safety standards for automobiles than the US. There are some instances where enforcement should be enforced, like school buses with children, who in 9 out of 10 accidents there’s serious injury of if not everyone involved, especially the driver, who’s not wearing a belt, or only a flimsy lap belt.
As for adults, that should be between you and the windshield should you decide to fly out it and be a vegetable. Just don’t expect me to pay your hospital bill when you’re sleeping for the next 40 years with a mr potato face. I have no obligation.
Even while drivign through NH in my Audi with 8 airbags and superior construction, I still wore my belt. And I used to be a hater of them and have never needed them in accidents I have been in even as a child. I just don’t feel like getting a ticket. And I had the same idea one man did, make a false belt that goes halfway down the torso. Well, he learned his lesson by dying in an accident wearing his fake belt.
Those who would call others “idots” in any discussion is one of the first signs of a failed argument!
@Baja,
Look up ecodes, you’ll find Europe has had superior headlighting standards for over 20 years. I’d call that idiocy on legislators, and federal/state DOTs part.
Seat belts on school buses? Naw, just let the kids skulls protect them when they’re bouncing off the roof in a rollover, or go over a big pothole, which almost always happens in those POS yellow tin cans. When I was in school in Germany, we had Mercedes TOUR buses take us to class. Luxury all the way with air con, and no seatbelts. But still safer than any US bus without them. Now most if not all Euro buses have seatbelts like the Merc sprinter.
“People who drive without seatbelts are idiots!”
I do not believe that since all pre 64 vehicles are not requred to have seat belts.
Both the Federal & State governments have accepted this so I guess that makes all those Legislators “IDIOTS”.
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First off it is pre 1965 cars that are exempt. 2nd the reason is that seatbelts weren’t mandatory equipment in cars until that date. You can’t mandate that driver’s wear seatbelts in cars that weren’t equiped with seatbelts.
I think I would be more concerned about underposted speed limits than helmet laws for those under 18.
Oh sadly need to state that Colorado now mandates helmets for 18 and under.
Yes Ohio does require helmets for novice and under 18 years of age riders.
Here is a handy link for motorcycle helmet laws:
http://www.bikersrights.com/states/1national/states.html
Ohio does not require motorcycle helmets.
This is also one of the 4 states (Iowa, Illinois, Colorado) that have no motorcycle helmet law and they are consistently safest for motorcycle riding.
A trip to one of the many brain injury hospitals shows in Colorado it’s not such a safe place to ride . I know personally of six people with brain injuries from crashing a bike while riding without a helmet in Colorado . Sand used on the highways for traction in winter weather which can last well into spring to the beginning of June in some parts of the state makes riding without a helmet pretty foolish .
Only an idiot rides without a helmet or drives without their seat belt buckled , law or not .
I don’t consider NH as a bastion of “freedom,” as they have still not returned their speed limits to pre 1974 levels. Their old speed limit was 70 mph. Today, it remains at 65. Bills to increase the limit have died in the NH legislature for a decade. On the other hand, they do shine when it comes to seat belts.
I can tell you one thing, those aholes like to tailgate. Seems they’re the worst drivers for this, yet the safest? hum
3 Cheers for New Hampshire!! And They have Very Rational Gun laws, maybe the Best in the Country!
Interesting, I didn’t know there was still a state without seat belt laws.