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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (22694)	7/2/2006 4:53:34 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541582

You have a relatively unique situation where safety equipment that saves 99% of people presents a hazard to you. First of all, it's not unique. I'm going to speak from authority here, so bear with me. I have studied this extensively. It is obviously a new topic to you. I have struggled for ten years with this problem. The federal regulations specify that seatbelts have to be designed to fit only 95% of drivers. Then there's the problem of them not fitting everyone in the 95% for which they are by law designed to fit. I am one of them. My body specifications fit the standards but seatbelts rarely fit me. How many people they actually don't fit is unknown but more than your one percent, more than the regulated five percent. But if I were a legislator and felt a duty to weigh the burden vs the public good, How many deaths do you consider an acceptable cost to save society this expense? I know you're not cavalier enough to consider death not to be a burden--although it isn't actually a burden to a dead person, come to think of it. :/ Since your problem can be fixed with a modification, I don't see any great philosophical import, just an obstacle you can easily overcome (and you did, I believe). Not a legal modification. (That's the reason I asked for PMs.) And not a modification that doesn't present its own set of safety risks, albeit less likely to be deadly. If the government can't make seatbelts safe for everyone, at the very least it shouldn't mandate them on those for whom they are not safe. First do no harm.