Seat belts can be deadly distraction

Published 7:57 pm Friday, January 29, 2010

To the editor:

Reading the article in your newspaper written by Sen. Don Thomas raises some questions.

Sen. Thomas says he will continue to push for SB 5 which would stop the seat belt exemption for pickup trucks. It seems he thinks Georgia citizens are all idiots who cannot make rational decisions without him as their nanny to make those decisions for them.

He also is willing to push legislation with no thought for unforeseen consequences. He needs to realize that the best way to avoid injury in an accident is not to be wearing a seat belt but to avoid having an accident in the first place.

Study after study has shown that distracted drivers are dangerous drivers. Most of these studies show a distracted driver is as dangerous or more dangerous than a drunk driver. For me and hundreds of thousands more, seat belts are a major distraction. They rub, they chafe, they hurt, they aggravate, they confine and in many cases are quite scary.

Thus, his forcing me to wear a seat belt forces me to be a dangerous driver. He has nice things to say about how he wants to protect his children and grandchildren, yet he doesn’t care in the least if the distraction of a seat belt causes a distracted driver to run over one of his (or your) grandchildren. He doesn’t care if his mandated distraction causes someone to wreck, killing themselves and others. All he cares about is being our nanny and protecting us even if it kills us.

Currently, driving a pickup truck is a way for me and others to drive safely without the major distraction of a seat belt. A way to avoid wrecks. A way to avoid injuring and/or killing ourselves and others by avoiding a wreck.

Injury and death are the unintended consequences of this legislation he champions. In the previous session, state Rep. Graves — another nanny — who is now running for Rep. Nathan Deal’s seat in Congress, sponsored HB 396 which would do the same thing. Sen. Thomas voted for this bill. Obviously Rep. Graves is another who sees Georgia citizens as mere morons who should be subservient to his will and allow him to make their personal decisions for them.

I would ask Sen. Thomas to rethink his sponsorship of SB 5. Please, senator, do not mandate the death of those who are distracted by seat belts and the death of those others involved in the wrecks this bill will cause. Please, senator, realize adult Georgians are not insipid idiots and we have sense enough to decide for ourselves whether wearing a seat belt is our best bet of surviving or not.

This is an election year. When you go to vote, please keep in mind that those politicians who sponsor and vote for these nanny laws think you are an idiot. Please remember this and vote for those who respect you as a sensible adult and vote to remove those who do not.



Perry Elrod

Tunnel Hill