Tied Down, For My Own Good?

I have to wonder, what is with the seatbelt law. Every day I hear of more and more people talking about tickets they received for not wearing a safety belt in their own cars. There is no freedom of choice about it. We have front airbags, side impact airbags, roll bars, all sorts of safety equipment to keep everyone from getting hurt while driving down the road with the cell phone in one hand, cigarette in the other, drinking a soda and fussing with the kids in the back seat.

There are no allowances for those that might not fit into a safety belt due to a handicap or their weight. If these people wear their belts they can not move quickly enough to shift in a manual transmission car. Nor can they reach for something falling off the seat beside them.

Injuries are common place from the safety devices; spleen damage, broken or dislocated shoulders, extreme bruising inside and out, and broken noses, amongst other things. In some instances, the person, whose safety was in the best interest of the lawmakers, may have never gotten hurt at all, were it not for these great life saving devices.

Maybe I am just plain paranoid.. But will I actually be able to find the seatbelt release to escape if I am in a panic-ed situation such as my car being on fire or going under the water in a flood. Sure, those sorts of accidents are few and far between but I really have a hard time with that.

Okay, so it’s the law. It is for my own protection whether I agree or believe in it. Suffer me the ticket if I can’t slide my arm under the restraint in time for the cop not to notice it is missing from my shoulder.

I would like to have the right to decide if I want to take the risk of not wearing my seat belt. After all we have airbags? why not put them on the other side of us too so they all go off during an impact and we are held into position by all those giant balloons. To me it would make a much less painful impact than having a belt rip and crack at my bones.

Then again it could be because those airbags don’t always work like are supposed to. I had a front on collision.. 2 of them.. I didn’t have my belt on.. (shh!! Don’t tell the police) and you know what the bags didn’t go off. I wasn’t hurt at all. The one accident I did have my belt on in took the pain in my shoulder 3 months to get better.

Even our children are made to sit in safety booster seats that have to be purchased by financially struggling parents for different growth stages for their own protection. (Like we have all that spare money after buying them all the designer clothes they have to have these days.) Okay, I know. It’s the law.

I will admit I do tend to agree with this child safety seat law just because those loving playful little monkeys, we call children, need to be restrained so they don’t distract us, ‘as much’, while we are driving with our cellphones, cigarettes, and sodas in hand.

Here is my major problem with this little safety belt restraint law..

Last week there was an ice storm.. For some reason or another the school district could not locate the person in charge of deciding if it was safe to drive our children to school in these big yellow buses we have here. So on this icy, cold morning the bus drivers were sent out to pick up our children.

Later on the news we started hearing of school buses sliding off the road and ending up stranding our children in ditches on the side of the road.. Were our children safely behind seat belts in these big open seated death traps? Nope, not a seatbelt in sight.. This is where I have a problem and it really bugs me.

I am sure most of you have been behind a school bus going one place or another. Tell me as you looked through those rear windows you seen nice orderly children all sitting perfectly content and still in their seats? Well, if you have I am really surprised.

Those same little monkeys that we have to restrain in our personal cars for sometimes 7 to 10 years (and then for the rest of their lives), for their own safety, are up and jumping around changing seats, bopping each other on the heads with books, tormenting the child with his own mind and doing all sorts of other things that kids do.

What is with that? Why are children allowed to be in huge buses without seat belts or airbags holding them into a safe position? Is it okay on the bus to have their heads bounced off the hard seats in front of them, or racked up against the windows, or thrown across the aisle as the bus accidentally falls off the road sliding towards the ditch? Why aren’t the laws protecting our kids in the school buses? We would get hefty tickets if we were to let them up and jump around in our cars..

Luckily, this particular day of bus sliding, no one got seriously hurt.. But they could have. It could have been devastating as the kids toppled over each other as the bus hit the embankment.

There have been bus accidents in the past like one in Tennessee where children were killed. Would seat belts have saved them? I really don’t know. Do seat belts save everyone in an accident or do they just hold them in a place with no way of escape?

Our school districts would cry ‘it takes money to put seat belts in buses’. (Darn, those football helmets will have to last one more year.) Why should we entrust our children to people who don’t have their best interests in mind? Isn’t that child endangerment? Am I wrong; isn’t there a law about that?

Why should laws only apply to us.
I just think a law that should protect me for my own good should also protect our children when they are not with us especially when left in the hands of government funded public schools. After all it is the government that decided the laws were for “everyone’s” safety. Not like we can sue a school. They already don’t have enough funds to educate our kids to the best of their abilities.

Perhaps the the real reason for the seatbelt laws is a way to make a few extra dollars for the local police departments and governmental agencies when funds are low for that new furniture they want in the lobby or office. It’s not like they speed trap for seatbelt restrictions everyday.

I just feel if you are going to tie me down with laws and fine me for my lack of care for my own safety. *cough* Those same laws should apply to those buses that carry our beloved 66 to 88 little monkeys back and forth to school and activities every day.

Everyone should be tied down by they same laws.. Even government and public schools.

categories Commentaries, Rants | | datetime February 16, 2007 10:37 pm | comments Comments (0)

Responsibity, Who’s Is It?

“There is something wrong. I am not getting any water from my faucets”

“I’m sorry Mr. Customer, Your service is shut off. We have not received a payment on your account in three months.”

“I haven’t gotten a bill in the mail for the last six months”

“I am looking at your account and I see you signed up for email billing. You don’t receive a paper bill if you sign up for email billing “

“Well, If I don’t get a bill I don’t know I have to pay it”

******************

I hear these same types of things everyday at my job in customer service. Why is it that people seem to think it is not their fault when they don’t pay their bills. I guess maybe I am old fashioned but if you purchase something that has a monthly charge, do you not realize, that every month, at that same time, you are going to have a charge for the service. Who’s responsibility is it?

Why is it that some people don’t think they are responsible for their own actions or the actions of their children? It’s not their fault it the child, whom they gave a fancy internet ready cell phone to, ran the phone bill up over 300 dollars in overage and data charges..”Why not???

How do they figure that is the fault of the phone company.They are the ones who gave their child an expensive phone and let them run up those charges. Did they not tell the child there was limits they had to adhere to when using this new toy. Wasn’t it the parents responsibility to make sure that child knew how to use the phone and how not to use the phone.

I have to wonder if these are the same kids who grow up and get into gangs and the parents say “I had no idea they were robbing houses. I didn’t think they were doing anything wrong when he was staying out till 3am on weeknights. He said his friend gave him his old Ipod and computer when he got new ones for his birthday”

Come on people.. The cop is not going to say “Oh well if you didn’t know then it’s okay, don’t worry about it”, and pat little Johnny on the head and give him the stolen Ipod back..
Why should a company say “that’s okay we’ll flip the bill instead.. You don’t have to pay the bill he ran up because you didn’t know.”. Who’s responsibility is it?


I realize, not all people are trying to get over with excuses like this.. But all people are paying the price for people who are getting over with it.. I heard the other day that on a website it was telling people Just call in and tell them that you were told this at the store and they will credit you back for it..


Sure it worked for a while. Now no one can get a legitimate credit when they were told something different at a store. The company can no longer afford to believe the public..SO.. who in the long run suffers?


Prices go up to make up for the losses for those that got over on the system. Instead of them paying that price up front, now they pay a bit more every month for it on the bill, along with everyone else.

The company will not take the loss. They are out to make money. Someone is going to pay for it. That someone is you..

So if you are one of those that doesn’t take the responsibility for your actions.. (or those of your child) I really hope I am not the one who is going to have to listen to you cry when you do have to pay the bills at a higher price because of the increase in rates..


You get what you pay for…
And in the long run. you pay for what you don’t..

categories Commentaries | | datetime January 27, 2007 12:50 am | comments Comments (1)