| Edgefield
County's Documented #1
Source for Daily Online Information! OVER 21,000 Pages Viewed Last 30 Days! |
|
Sections Opinion Dr. Skip Myers The INsider Dining Wandering Minds Classifieds Archives Crime Blotter Off The Wall Contact Us: Phone 803-634-0964 Mon-Sat 9 am - 6 pm School System EC District Office School Board Strom Thurmond Fox Creek High School News Student News Public Offices Edgefield County Edgefield Johnston Trenton Public Forums To enter you must read our Terms of Service Pundits Neal Bortz Townhall.com National Review Online The New Republic Add your online favorite by e-mailing it to us here. News links Edgefield Advertiser Aiken Standard North Augusta Star The State Augusta Chronicle Atlanta Journal United Press Associated Press FOX News Reuters CNS News WorldNet Daily Newsmax Drudge Report GoogleNews Yahoo!News New York Times New York Post Los Angeles Times Washington Times Washington Post |
Citizens differ over new seat belt law Edgefielddaily.com web posted June 11, 2005 South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford allowed the new seat belt law to take effect without his signature yesterday, June 9. The new law allows officers to pull over drivers who are not buckled up and issue a citation for a fine of $25 with a maximum of $50 per stop if multiple occupants are also unbelted. In a written statement Governor Sanford had indicated he was going to veto the bill because he felt it was not the place of the legislators to legislate people protecting themselves. In Edgefield County law enforcement officials say they do not feel it will make that much of a difference, “We don’t write that many seat belt citations,” Edgefield Police Chief Ronald Carter said. “I like the law,” he said also saying the present law, “has not changed that much from the previous law,” other than it can initiate a stop now. Chief Carter also said they put more emphasis on child restraint laws saying it is, “one thing for a grown adult to make a decision to wear one or not,” but that children were at the mercy of the adult and cannot make that decision. Edgefield County Sheriff Adell Dobey said his department would enforce the laws of the state but that, “traffic is not one of the main priorities of the deputies,” he said. Currently the number of deputies patrolling the county has their hands full on other more pressing calls emanating from the E911 center and that the highway patrol is the chief agency providing traffic controls. Almost 500 people have been killed in accidents in South Carolina this year according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. That number includes pedestrians and bicyclist as well. Among the number of deaths, 269 were not wearing seat belts when they were available. Statewide the numbers stay about the same where just over half of the deaths were not buckled up and just under half were wearing restraints. Opinions on the street vary on the new law. Pat Williams said she does not like the new law, “Anyone over 21 should not have to wear (seat belts) if they don’t want to,” she said. Although she was in support of laws on children wearing restraints, “they are not old enough to make that decision,” she said. Williams also said she was in an accident and was wearing her seat belt, “I broke my sternum,” she said, “they told me if I hadn’t had the seat belt on I would have been OK.” Dennis Dooley had a different view, “I think it’s a good law, I agree with it,” he said adding he always wears his seat belt and that, “my wife makes sure of that.” Another gentleman we spoke with who did not want to be identified says he is against it as it is just more of an invasion of privacy, “What business do they have to tell me I have to wear a seat belt when I can get on a motorcycle barefoot and no helmet and can’t be stopped,” he said. He also said this type of conflicting law comes from having too many laws, “When you try to pass laws on everything you end up making laws that don’t jive with other laws, it makes them (Legislators) look stupid,” he said. “Being fat and smoking kills more people than not wearing a seat belt,” he said, “Are they going to pass laws on that too?” The new law takes effect next year. Violations will not be reported to insurance companies under the new law and statistics on race will be kept to prevent racial profiling. Return to Main Page
Contact us All original material is property of Edgefield Daily.com and cannot be reproduced or distributed without the expressed written permission of Edgefield Daily.com |
|
| Contact us: Editor |
|
|
 |