Seat belt math: When does $25 equal $100-plus?
Posted on July 12th, 2009 – 11:13 PMBy Roadguy
Here’s my weekly column:
ABOUT THAT FINE FOR NOT BUCKLING UP…
When the state’s new seat belt law passed this year, it included a $25 fine, but alert reader Paul is among those who have discovered the real cost.
After he got cited in Roseville for failing to buckle up, he called the court system to get more information and the person on the other end of the phone told him what he’d actually be paying:
106 bucks! I told her online it said it was a 25-buck ticket, but she said there were $81 in surcharges!
Roadguy checked with Susan Bownes, Ramsey County’s traffic violations manager. The voice on the other end of Paul’s call was correct.
Although they’re often thought of as court fees, the surcharges mostly go into state coffers. In Ramsey County, $75 of the $81 goes into the state general fund, $5 goes to running the county’s law library, and a dollar goes to the county itself. Hennepin County violators pay slightly less — $78 in surcharges — because the library fee is $3, and there’s no county fee.
On the (somewhat) brighter side for misbehaving drivers, there’s now only one surcharge per incident, instead of for every violation. That means if Paul had been ticketed for speeding and not being buckled up, he would’ve been hit with the surcharge once instead of twice. (That’s a recent change, Bownes said.)
If you ask Roadguy, it’s just a lot easier to wear the seat belt.
TWO VIEWS OF CLEAR BARRIERS
Last week I mentioned the new see-through sound barriers on Interstate 35W at Minnehaha Creek (slightly blurry photo above taken Friday by yours truly while sitting in the passenger seat), and a couple of readers made some noise of their own.
Alert reader Janet wanted to know whether such a barrier could be erected in Robbinsdale along Hwy. 100 at a spot where some residents objected to a solid wall that would have blocked their view of a lake. I called our friends at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, who indicated that the clear barriers are too expensive for widespread use, but they said they’d be happy to hear Janet out.
Alert reader Jim, meanwhile, questions the value of such barriers for drivers:
You don’t want people looking down. … Beautification is beautiful, but let’s use the freeways as intended, as thoroughfares without having a parkway effect so that people can look at all the shrubbery and the greenery … Keep the distractions away from people and we’ll have less claims for the insurance companies.
So if the acrylic gets obscured with crud in the winter, not everyone will be disappointed.
7 Responses to "Seat belt math: When does $25 equal $100-plus?"
Why is it mandatory to wear a seatbelt in a vehicle, but no helmet is required while on a motorcycle? Never mind shorts and sandals, there are times I see riders who aren’t even wearing eye-protection.
Bet that will be coming someday, too, Pete. Probably helmets for bicycle riders, too. I don’t always wear mine, but for 106 dollars, I’d find it real quick.
Because, Pete, when you in your 3000#+ vehicle hit me on my motorcycle - with a seatbelt you will likely walk away without a scratch and I may very well be dead. With or without a helmet.
There are all levels of accidents, pinecone, for both two and four-wheeled vehicles. If I have a minor mishap with my car and bang into another vehicle, tree or utility pole - most likely nobody gets hurt. The same is not true for a motorcycle. I rode a bike for years and had a few instances of loose gravel, close encounters with cars cutting me off, where I spilled and my helmet saved me an awful lot of pain and injury and probably worse. I don’t understand the disconnect between mandatory seatbelts and no mandatory helmets.
The belt also keeps you in the driver’s seat where you belong if your car swerves or gets bumped. That way you stay in control. Also keeps your body from being slammed into another body inside the car.
From the previous post: “Dirt will not readily adhere to this polished surface,” the manufacturer’s website says. “As a result, rain or the dew that frequently forms at night will rinse the sheet clean. In most cases, Paraglas Soundstop needs no additional cleaning.” Wrong. Those sound barriers aren’t as clear as they appear in Jim’s photo. They’re filthy already. Maybe part of the stimulus $$ is going towards squeegy guys to clean them.
Why mandatory seat belts but not helmets? Primarily because motorcycle riders are organized and represented by the presence of a strong lobby (A.B.A.T.E. etc.) and the car-driving population is not.
Also, when the state and counties seek to generate revenue under the guise of public safety, they’d want to go after the greatest numbers, as in number of drivers versus riders. (Although I’ll never, ever understand how our forward-thinking legislative body tied revenue generation to a cigarette tax and then proceeded to ban smoking) Oh yeah, and there are the federal highway funds that are tied to compliance with numerous regulations, including seat belt use.
Me? Absolutely helmet (and seat belt) every time. I don’t kid myself that I’m much safer - that won’t happen until drivers start paying more attention to their driving, less to their distractions - but as an organ donor, I know if I keep brain activity going longer I’ll be a much more suitable candidate for harvest (there is a reason ER/OR staff call ‘em “donor-cycles”…) I know riders who choose to not wear a helmet and I fully support their decision, as they support my choice to wear a helmet.
