McElroy Says Seatbelt Regulations Misguided at Best

Earlier we reported on the cost of auto accidents to the American public. Well, John McElroy over at Ward’s Auto has an insightful and true take on the subject.

He said, “Every year, almost like clockwork, 42,000 people are killed in motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. Several million more are injured, many of them badly. Our reaction to this problem is to write even more regulations. It’s not working.”

He noted that it comes down to one determining factor; seatbelts. That’s right, seatbelts. We, here in America, can force the automaker to produce the safest cars and crash-test the hell out of them, but if no one’s wearing a seatbelt, what’s the difference?

McElroy pointed out that while we do have laws in place, we have the weakest laws compared to counties with far better safety records. The difference is stricter seatbelt requirements. If an accident occurs causing serious injury, and the person wasn’t wearing their seatbelt, in other countries, that’s their fault. No reasonable blame can be thrust on the automaker and insurance companies are stricter on seatbelt-less insureds.

He said, “Let’s face it, if you can pin the blame for a traffic fatality on an auto maker, you can make a lot of money in the U.S. It’s not hard to swing a jury to favor a deceased plaintiff when their bereaved family is weeping in the courtroom, especially when the other side is a big corporation represented by company lawyers. But if you sue the driver at fault for not wearing a seatbelt (or being drunk, asleep, careless or high), well, there’s not much money in that.”

The result is that the U.S. forces stricter safety regulation upon the automaker and, still, the lawsuits fly and the insurance claims are higher because more people get more severely injured. The solution is simple; no seatbelt, no rights. That will surely drop the number of accidents causing serious injury and, in turn, lower that dreadful $1,051 annual cost to every American.