March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Gov. John McKernan promised Wednesday to reject a long-overdue bill requiring motorists to use seat belts, turning a simple safety measure into a misguided family affair. His wife, Rep. Olympia Snowe, has been campaigning to disconnect federal highway funds from mandatory motorcycle helmet laws.

Maine could use both the seat-belt and helmet rules, although it is capable of passing such bills without threats from Washington to cut its highway money. What’s odd about the McKernan-Snowe opposition is that, without some huge government overlay, these measures save lives, reduce the severity of injuries and save insurance costs for all motorists.

It is particularly disturbing that Rep. Snowe argues against these rules by taking the lofty ideals of the nation’s founders and denigrating those ideals by applying them to motor-vehicle regulations. “America was founded on the principle of individual freedoms,” she said, speaking before the House Transportation Subcommittee on Surface Transportation. “Whether a person chooses to wear a helmet or not is their business — not the government’s business.”

If safety measures are outweighed by considerations of freedom, as she argues, why not drop all safety requirements for automobile manufacturers and give people the freedom to choose whether to drive a safe vehicle or not? If personal choice should not be tempered by societal costs, why not eliminate all speed limits and give people the freedom to choose any speed they feel like driving, so long as they don’t hit anyone else?

Few would argue for these “freedoms” because the results would be obvious: an increased number of deaths and higher costs to society, exactly the result produced by the lack of using seat belts and helmets. The argument that opting to not use a seat belt or helmet endangers only the person making that choice is far outweighed by the duty of the state to take action when it sees clear evidence that easily obtainable means would prevent death or injury to its citizens.

Cars and motorcycles already have dozens of safety requirements — from manufacturing specifications, to the use of air bags to state inspections — that most people view as reasonable. But requiring those same people, owners of the vehicles that have been required to meet safety standards, to act responsibly suddenly seems for some to leave the realm of common sense and become an assault on freedom.

The resulting debate belittles the idea of freedom and suggests to motorists that using common sense is akin to treason. Surely the governor and the representative can find more worthy arenas in which to become freedom fighters.


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