Bill making not wearing a seat belt a primary offense dies

THIS TRULY PUT A FIRE UNDER ME TO GET MY MESSAGE HEARD IN THE STATE OF NEVADA! I was truly sickened by this. Even more so disgusted by what Assembly Transportation Chairman Kelvin Atkinson's response was. These Assemblymen should be ashamed of themselves. The day that one of their daughters is whipped into a windshield and practically dies BUT the seat belt saves her life by holding her body in the car will be the day the light bulb turns on for them.
OR maybe we have to put it into #'s - as in how much these crash injuries are costing them....I don't know, I need a moment to truly place my thoughts.
I will post my personal feelings once I can think clearly and put my racing thoughts into words.

Bill making not wearing a seat belt a primary offense dies

April 23, 2009 06:20 PM

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- A Nevada bill that would have allowed police to stop any driver they believe isn't wearing a seat belt has died in the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Seat belts are required in Nevada, but existing law prohibits police from stopping a driver for no reason other than a suspicion that the driver isn't belted.

Critics of the bill say that it interferes with personal liberty and may encourage racial profiling. They also say that existing law is enough.

In Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel's words, "Somehow or other, we're not communicating to our kids that a law is a law. And it troubles me that we need to have a law that says, 'No, we really mean it's a law."'

CARSON CITY (AP) — Nevada lawmakers and witnesses gave emotional testimony Tuesday on a bill that would allow police to stop any driver they believe isn’t wearing a seat belt.

The Assembly Transportation Committee reviewed SB116, a new version of a proposal that has been killed in several previous sessions despite strong support from police agencies.

Seat belts are required in Nevada, but existing law prohibits police from stopping a driver for no reason other than a suspicion that the driver isn’t belted.

Proponents of SB116, already approved by the state Senate, say it would save lives and reduce injuries. Opponents said seat belts don’t necessarily save lives or may even harm or kill people in crashes, adding that current laws are enough.

Other critics of the bill contend that it interferes with personal liberty and may encourage racial profiling.

Sen. Michael Schneider, D-Las Vegas, told lawmakers to “not get emotional about why the bill was brought forward,” and called it “a matter of fiscal responsibility.”

“You will hear other people testify it is their right to stay unbuckled. It is their right to put their life at risk,” Schneider said. “I say if you want to attempt suicide just get it done, but don’t come to the taxpayers here and say, ’Hey, pick up my expenses for my irresponsibility.”’

Assemblyman Joe Hogan, D-Las Vegas, also backed the bill, saying seat belts may be an inconvenience but they save lives and “I just think we ought to get on with it and join the rest of the states who have seen the light and enact a primary seat belt law.”

“I’m absolutely convinced that we would have in Nevada a substantial decline in fatalities and serious accidents if we had a mandatory primary seatbelt law,” Hogan said. “I don’t see any downsides whatsoever.”

Assemblyman Jerry Claborn, D-Las Vegas, his voice rising, argued that the bill infringes on personal constitutional rights.

“I will not take this. I will not do it,” Claborn said. “I will not take my constitutional rights from you, you aren’t going to take them from me.”

Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, questioned statistics presented by the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety that said the bill would help close the small gap between people who currently use seatbelts and those who don’t.

“The people that I know that aren’t buckling up will not buckle up. I don’t care what you do unless you put a police guy in every car,” Carpenter said.

Assembly Transportation Chairman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, also questioned the statistics. He said that if he can be convinced SB116 would encourage unbelted drivers to buckle up “I’ll vote for it — but until I am, I probably won’t be supporting this bill.”

Atkinson also said it’s difficult to determine accident survivability regardless of seatbelt use, adding, “I don’t think anyone in this room can really, really say in some accidents if someone would have lived or survived.”

David Washington, a former Las Vegas fire chief, said that as “a black American” he’s aware of statistics on racial profiling by authorities, but added SB116 would save lives.

“My point is that those statistics have their place, but certainly the lives of people are still important,” Washington said.

Lynn Chapman and David Schumann of the conservative Nevada Families Eagle Forum opposed the measure on constitutional grounds.

“You can’t help the stupidity of some people,” Chapman said. “I mean what can you do? I don’t think trying to force people to do this is the answer.”

“I really don’t need you folks to look after me,” Schumann added

This momentous day

Not one day in anyone’s life…is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example. Each smallest act of kindness–even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile–reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will. All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined–those dead, those living, those generations yet to come–that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands. Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength–to the very survival–of the human tapestry. Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous day.

From the Corner of His Eye
Dean Koontz

Another life lost to a SENSELESS death..

I was sitting in the waiting room of the dentist when my husband called me with this news story. As he explained the details I became sick to my stomach and my eyes welled up with tears. I do not know any of the individuals affected by this tragic turn of events BUT what I do know is the personal pain the victims families are all feeling. In an instant your life can be so easily ripped from you.
This up and coming 22 year old and his friends did NOT have to die. This was not an "accident" and it was completely preventable.
I find it absolutely frustrating that our society can not comprehend the severity of our actions behind the wheel of a vehicle. Our vehicles are 3.000 lb. weapons and what we do with them has the potential to kill. That is exactly what happened. Someone ran a read light and killed 3 innocent people. We all know that running a red light can cause harm to others. That is why I look at that person as a murderer. While the 3 innocent victims are laid to rest on god's green earth........with no future of living out the American Dream - this killer with get a slap on the wrist and probably become a repeat offender. (According to the Los Angeles Times, the driver has a prior DUI conviction)

Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:41 am EDT

Tragic news: Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart killed in hit-and-run

By 'Duk

Terrible news out of California this morning, where we've just learned that the Angels rookie Nick Adenhart was killed in an early morning hit-and-run accident in Fullerton on Thursday.

The news was first reported by TMZ and later confirmed by Yahoo! Sports baseball columnist Tim Brown.

Just 22 years old, Adenhart started for Los Angeles on Wednesday night and struck out five batters over six scoreless innings in a 6-4 loss to Oakland. It was only the fourth start of his young career and first since earning the third spot in the Angels' rotation over spring training.

According to reports, Adenhart was driving home with three others in his silver Mitsubishi when a mini-van ran through a red light and hit Adenhart's car, causing it to crash into a light pole. A female driver and male passenger died on the scene while Adenhart was taken to the hospital where he died undergoing surgery, according to a spokesman from the UC-Irvine Medical Center. The driver of the mini-van fled the scene, but was later apprehended by police. No other members of the Angels' organization were involved.

This is the most tragic news you can imagine in the baseball world and our thoughts go out to Adenhart's family and the entire Angels' organization, which was already reeling from the death of a fan who was involved in a fight on Opening Day.