Front license plate bill in legislature again

You know what? I was just wondering the other day about the validity of those seat belt laws that are so popular with the police departments -

If you have airbags, wasn't this supposed to be the ultimate in safety that went far beyond mere seatbelts?

If you have a really old car and seat belts only but no shoulder harness, does that make you legal?

And, of course, how could this be much worse than riding a bike without a helmet?

Final answer - the motorcycle lobby is stronger than the no front plate lobby and the legislature is afraid of them.

 

The sacred airbag was to protect passengers who weren't wearing seatbelts........sooooooooo...... we have seatbelt laws to make sure that the politician, er, airbag isn't actually utilized for anything more than helping to total the vehicle.
If you're wearing the belts as you're supposed to, you'll only contact the airbag because it comes to you to meet you. Barring a failure of the belt system itself, any contact with the wheel/dash it would have actually prevented would involve a crash so violent, of such force, that the momentary pillow effect would have little/no impact on the severety of all of the other injuries from the other forces of such a powerful crash. And in that event of the absence or failure of the belts, that airbag is a one-shot deal.
The above doesn't apply to Side- or A-Pillar-Impact Airbags, which actually do a job the belts can't cover.

The validity of the belt laws is the usual - follow the $$$$. Unless they were lying about how the airbag protects you (and a salesman/politician never twists the real science into a lie for the pitch, right?), you'd generally be safe, so it comes down to opportunity for revene.

As for the older lap-belt generation cars (remember that strap clipped to the headliner above the door of the old Rambler?!?! I feel old for knowing that), they're grandfathered, but you'll still leave teeth marks on the wheel or get a dashboard rhinoplasty. Still beats being the paint in the shaker.....just add that airbag!!!

Them biker gangs is skeery stuff!!

 

Man, you got me on that one, hadn't remembered the clipped strap for ages. My dad
was a Hudson/Nash/Rambler/AMC guy(gawd), and we had everything, from a '41 Hudson to
a '61('59? Don't remember for sure) Black Rambler station wagon(with pushbutton automatic shifting) all the way up to my last AMC car, a 1980 Spirit Hatchback.

Only thing I liked about them thar cars when I was a kid was the reclining front seats