(June 11, 2015 at 7:43 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: ...
How to drive, parking, braking, etc. are important laws to protect the rights of other motorists; wearing a seatbelt isn't, IMO.
If you are judged to be at fault in an accident (whether rightly or wrongly), the punishment you get will likely depend on whether the other person wore a seatbelt or helmet. Do you think it is fair that one is punished differently based on what someone else does, that one has no control over?
Also, these things affect insurance rates, and that affects us all. Do you think you have the right to drive up my insurance costs? Basically, insurance will need to be higher if people are allowed to not wear seatbelts and helmets, because there will be greater injuries, and consequently greater expenses associated with accidents. Consequently, insurance rates must be higher to cover that extra cost. Frankly, I don't want to pay higher insurance rates because some moron does not want to wear a seatbelt or helmet, even though their head obviously has nothing in it worth protecting.
So we are talking about something that does have an impact on other people. When you do something that impacts other people, shouldn't they have some say in the matter?
Since you seem to have a libertarian streak, remember, we are talking about laws regarding the use of public roads, not what people do on their own private property. When you are on property that is not your own, you typically must conform to requirements of the owner of the property to remain there. In this case, the owner of the property requires the use of seatbelts and helmets, or you are not allowed to drive there.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
