[VinVega]

This has the potential of really opening a can of worms...but I feel the need to throw in my two cents regardless. Now I completely see why people find it ridiculous to require someone to wear a seatbelt instead of leaving it up to the person. Their biggest argument seems to be a guy they know or someone an acquaintance knows, who was saved in an accident because they weren't wearing a seatbelt (being ejected as opposed to crushed, for instance). I can say they probably know ten other people who were saved by wearing their seatbelts. Regardless, maybe it shouldn't be anything more than a secondary offense, when stopped for something else.
One thing that really infuriates me, though, is a situation I came upon about two years ago. Right where I work, there is a Via-Duct I take to get home where all kinds of fender benders happen all the time, very rarely a serious accident. This time, a person had rear-ended someone else, nothing at all serious. But, the driver of the rear-ending car had to be taken to the hospital because of a head wound they got from hitting the windshield...something a few seconds buckling a seatbelt could've completely prevented. That made me so mad because what if an accident or situation of some sort where those emergency workers were needed came up that was under noone's control? Those EMTS, Paramedics, and COPs would be entirely unable to help in a more severe situation, and it was all because someone was too stubborn to buckle up. Now I believe it's a choice much as anyone does, but to see something so minor become something so much more, that really irks me.