How does the seatbelt law work?

You get a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt. You must wear your seatbelt at all times. You weren’t wearing your seatbelt at all times. What’s not to get?

Yes they can do that. ( ticket you for no seatbelt that is.) Just because you had it on when the cop walked up to your car doesn’t mean you were following the law. In some states they can pull you simply for seat belts. I don’t know if Georgia is one of those states tho.

Yes, they can do that. Click it or ticket. The idea of the seatbelt is to wear while you are driving not put it on after you get caught without it. You got pulled over, because the cop obviously saw you without the seatbelt,

I wonder what the cop thought when he saw you with it on.

it worked well. But not to my financial benefit.

Tell them they can take their ticket and stick it. Take ‘em to the Supreme Court, the punks. Highway robbery’s what it is.

In Georgia you are toast:

“Ga. L. 2000, pg. 763, Code 40–8-76.1, item B

Each occupant of the front seat of a passenger vehicle shall, while such passenger vehicle is being operated on a public road, street or highway of this state, be restrained by a seat safety belt approved under the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208.”

Now in Florida, if you are an adult, they have to be stopping you for something else.

As to putting it on after you are stopped, that is like braking after you sped by and saw the cop with the radar gun. Too little, too late.

what i wanna know is why you wouldn’t wear a seatbelt in the first place. pretty goofy.

@Marina- thanks! You understood where my confusion was coming from. “In Florida they have to be stopping you for something else”. So, I must have gotten GA law confused with another state’s law.

And yes, General, its dumb not to wear a seatbelt no matter what distance you are travelling. I usually do which is why I was shocked to get a ticket the one time I was heading just around the block for coffee.

What amazes me is how so many people in “the land of the free” so automatically combine “you shouldn’t do X” with “it should be illegal” and “the police should be out to catch and ticket and fine people”.

I always wear a seatbelt for safety reasons myself. I was taught. I get it. It makes sense.

That does NOT mean there should be a law, etc. It’s the job of schools, other public education, parents, and friends, to get people to use seatbelts and wear bike helmets, etc., to reduce risks to themselves.

@Zaku Would that human beings were sensible enough that that would be sufficient. We are not. Will a child wear a seatbelt if his parent does not? Should society pay the bills for the vegetables and quadriplegics who elect not to wear seatbelts, but the health caresystem is required to save?

@Marina Humans do protect themselves from injuries and use safety systems when they are educated. Some children do wear seatbelts when their parents don’t, generally because they have been educated better than their parents about it. I.e. It’s a problem for educators, not law enforcement.

The other question is a larger one about who pays for what kinds of health care in what circumstances, which is also a separate issue to my thinking.

@Zaku $$$$$$$$$$$ That’s why.

@marinelife we had years without seat belts and people got into car accidents, so what’s your point?