Earlier news: Note: The latest news is always on the front page.

Patty Murray Biography: We have been looking into the biography of senator Patty Murray, one of the chief advocates of seatbelt coercion in the United States Senate.   According to her  biography, as published by the United States House of Representatives, Office of History and Preservation, "Women in Congress 1917-2006" (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 2006) she received a B.A. from Washington State University in l972, but her major field is not specified. Apparently, the only paid  employment experience she has ever had outside of politics   was as an instructor at Shoreline Community College from 1984 to 1987, but it does not say in what field, nor does it explain how a someone with only a bachelor's degree could teach at a college, nor does it say if the job was full time or part time. Wikepedia gives her profession as "teacher", but the only other educational experience listed in her biography is "education volunteer" from 1977 to 1984. It seems to us that this does not qualify her as an expert on automotive safety.

LUNACY MARCHES ON: On October 15, 2008, the Secretary of Transportation, Ms. Mary Peters, announced that the government would be requiring seatbelts on small school buses. (see www.dot.gov). Apparently, the reason that Ms. Peters made this announcement rather than the head of NHTSA, is that the former head of NHTSA, Nicole Nason, has left, and the agency now has an acting head (see below). The new rule was issued in the form of a 152 page report (available on the dot web site) which makes fascinating reading, if you have a strong stomach. It is rather as if the government had issued a 152 page report gravely considering the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
    The report is a combination political/bureaucratic document most of which is dedicated to a discussion of the various "comments" which were received during the "comment period" leading up to the "rule making".    The respect accorded to the various commentators varied in proportion to their political importance. The discussion is mainly an effort at self-justification by DOT (i.e., by Mary Peters) to justify the action which they have taken in light of the comments which they have received from various politically important groups (or groups which they consider to be politically important). Needless to say, none of these groups have any technical expertese or are in any way qualified to discuss the matter. There were groups of local school officials concerned about the expense, mothers of school children,  self-appointed "safety" vigilantes, and so on. In fact, the usual cast of characters.
    In this connection it is worth pointing out that the issue of putting seatbelts on school buses has been considered, and rejected, by almost every state legislature in the country, even in states normally supportive of seatbelt laws.
    Since Ms. Peters, like Ms. Nason, is a lawyer with no professional expertise in the field of automotive safety, extensive reference to legal documents, as opposed to technical documents, is made in the report. Of course Ms. Peters is in a difficult position since she is sworn to uphold the law, and in this case the law, 23 USC 402, 405 and 406, as well as  the FMVSS contained in CFR 49,  is the most absurd nonsense.  So she is trying to reconcile the the legal requirements and political pressures to which she is being subjected.
    We have to consider the possibility that some of the groups commenting on the proposed rule were not, in fact, what they claimed to be, but fronts put up to it by the seatbelt industry or the misguided insurance industry. We have no proof of this, but the whole history of government involvement in seatbelts, airbags and booster seats is one that is so shot through with lies, fraud, deceit and corruption that one cannot rule it out.

The following states ran seatbelt harassment campaigns from May 22 to June 4, 2006: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maine, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Of these, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Maine have secondary seatbelt laws and are thus running these campaigns in violation of their own state law.

Congress: January 11, 2007: It now looks as though congress will continue to fund the government through continuing resolutions rather than try to pass appropriaton bills, at least for the foreseeable future. As long as that continues, we will not get a chance to get the seatbelt money taken out of the transportation appropriation bill.

Congress: December 9, 2006. The 109th congress is now history. In one of its last acts, the congress passed a continuing resolution to keep the government running until February 15, 2007. The good news is that they did not pass HR 5576. The bad news is that the continuing resolution means that NHTSA continues to get money to bribe states to promote the seatbelt scam by lying propaganda and coercion. We are thankful that they are no longer doing it with the same intensity as before, but they are still doing it, because of the mandate and pressure being exerted on them by certain members of congress. The only way to finally drive a stake through the heart of this evil is to get congress to repeal it.

December 2, 2006: Congress: The congress seems to have little enthusiasm for passing any more appropriation bills before the end of the session. The government is now running on a kind of catch-all continuing resolution, with conservatives like Dick Armey lobbying to keep it that way. All the continuing resolutions we have checked are meticulous in maintaining current spending levels while the pending appropriation bills are loaded with pork. So it seems likely that HR 5576 will be left to the next session of congress.

The new Secretary of Transportation. The new Secretary of Transportation is Mary E. Peters. Prior to her present appointment, Ms. Peters served as director of the Arizona State Department of Transportation and then as director of the Federal Highway Administration. Her experience is mainly in the field of highway construction. She is a graduate of the University of Phoenix and also attended the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government; but, apparently, president Bush did not hold this against her.

Ms. Peters was quoted in USA Today (www.usatoday.com) as saying, "seat belt use dipped slightly this fiscal year". Notice she did not say "this year". She said "this fiscal year". That's a pretty good indication of what the seatbelt scam is all about. Apparently, she had no further comment on  the subject. This is not at all what the seatbelt scammers were hoping to hear. It seems that the Bush administration, sobered by their defeat in the recent elections, is trying to win back their conservative base. If so, putting an end to the seatbelt scam would be a good place to start.

October 2, 2006. We now have the text of HR 6233. The "highway safety" section has indeed been amended but it is indeed a technical correction. What is interesting, though, is that if you look at the paragraph in 119 Stat. 1521, just above the paragraph to be corrected, it amends 23 USC 402 (a)(2) by striking "and to increase public awareness of the benefits of airbags". It must be very difficult for the members of congress, not technically trained, to know whom to believe. So they tend to get taken in by the crackpots, charlatans and self appointed do gooders, the glib con artists who know how to impress the members, and ignore the competent scientists and engineers who, by and large, are not good at talking to people outside their field. But let us give the members of congress credit where credit is due. They are willing to admit they made a mistake and correct it when they understand the situation, as we can see from the above. Someone must have gotten through to them on air bags. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to get through to them on seatbelts. But we will keep trying.

October 1, 2006:  In another interesting development, Representative Don Young of Alaska, the chief sponsor of HR 3, introduced, on September 28, HR 6233, which amends that bill. How it amends that bill we do not yet know because the text of HR 6233 is not yet available. The House passed this bill on September 29 and sent it to the senate. What is remarkable about this is not only the speed with which this bill was rushed through the House, but the fact that it passed on the last day, when most members are too rushed to even think about, let alone read, all the legislation which they are voting on. No doubt it was described to them as a minor technical correction. We will await the text of this bill with interest and let you know about it when it comes out.

The cost of HR 5576: Based on our calculations, the total cost of HR 5576, so far, comes to $78.279 billion dollars, for 123 separate items. The bill is full of pork barrel and special interest group appropriations.
      A lot is riding on this bill. It now seems clear that NHTSA is being run out of 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue and not out of 7th Street, SW. They are going to keep Ms. Nason on a pretty tight leash. They will probably wait until they see the final form of this bill before deciding on the future of the seatbelt scam and police harassment.

Autoliv in Idaho. August 19, 2006. According to an article in Thursday's Idaho Statesman, Autoliv was one of the Idaho companies receiving patents last year. Autoliv, for those of you who may not be aware of it, is the world's largest seatbelt and airbag company. Thanks to seatbelt and airbag laws, they rake in billions of dollars a year.   Our research indicates, however, that the nearest Autoliv facility is located in Ogden, Utah. They do, however, sponsor "research" at the University of Idaho. Money talks.

July 20, 2006: The transportation subcommittee of the Senate appropriations committee issued the folowing statement as part of their report on HR 5576:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: $811 million; this amount is $5 million above the FY06 level. These funds will maintain current programs and continue the mobilization and paid media initiatives that have proven so effective in increasing safety belt use and impaired driving awareness.

July 18, 2006. The transportation subcommittee of the senate appropriations committee will be meeting today, July 18, 2006, at 4 p.m. EDT in 124 Dirksen to markup HR 5576. The schedule was not posted until last night, hence the short notice. Members of the committee are senators Shelby, Specter, Bennett, Hutchison, DeWine, Brownback, Stevens, Domenici, Burns, Murray, Byrd, Mikulski, Reid, Kohl, Durbin, Dorgan, Leahy, and Harkin. Of these, Hutchison, DeWine, Burns, Byrd, and Kohl are up for re-election.
        What we want taken out is the $149.5 million for seatbelt grants under 23 USC 405 and 406, and the $6 million under section 2011 of PL 109-59 (formerly HR 3). You can find these in HR 5576 under DOT-NHTSA-Highway Traffic Safety Grants (what a joke).
        The full committee meets on Thursday, July 20, 2006, at 2 p.m. in Dirksen 106 to consider the committee reports. Members of the full committee are senators Cochran (Chairman), Stevens, Domenici, McConnell, Burns, Shelby, Gregg, Bennett, Craig, Hutchison, DeWine, Brownback, Allard, Byrd (Co-Chairman), Inouye, Leahy, Harkin, Mikulski, Reid, Kohl, Murray, Dorgan, Feinstein, Durbin, Johnson, and Landrieu.
        The committee phone number is (202) 224-7363. If any of these senators are in your state, or even if they aren't, please call the committee and ask them to take out the seatbelt money.

July 4, 2006. The new NHTSA administrator is Nicole Nason. Ms. Nason was born on August 12, 1970 in New York. She graduated from American University with a BA in 1992 and received a JD from Case Western Reserve in 1995. She served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1999. From 1999 to 2000 she served as government affairs counsel for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. From 2000 to 2002 she served as counsel and communications director for the House Intelligence Committee. Fron 2002 to 2003 she served as Assistant Commissioner for Congressional Relations in the U.S. Customs Service. From 2003 to 2006 she served as Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs in the Department of Transportation.
Ms. Joan Claybrook, a former head of NHTSA, was quoted as saying, "Nason, as Assistant Secretary of Transportation, acted primarily as a lobbyist for the Bush Administration in opposing safety proposals that the agency now has the responsibility to enforce."
Commentary: We want to give Ms. Nason a chance. Anybody who is hated by Joan Claybrook can't be all bad.

June 23, 2006. The Secretary of Transportation, Mr. Norman Mineta, has announced that he will be leaving his post on July 7.

June 19, 2006: The congress is now considering the appropriation bills for fiscal 2007. On June 9, 2006, the House Appropriations Committee reported out HR 5576, the appropriation bill for the Departments of Transportation, Treasury, HUD, the Judiciary and the District of Columbia.

The House spent most of June 13 and 14 "debating" this bill. The "debate" consisted mostly of members adding millions of dollars to the bill for their own pet projects. The House then passed the amended bill by a vote of 406 to 22 and sent it to the senate.

Buried deep inside this bill are the appropriations for seatbelt propaganda, harassment and coercion. The Committee basically took the amounts from last year's conference report on HR 3058 and pasted them into the new bill. Thus, the new bill appropriates $220 million  for 23 USC 402 versus $217 million last year. It appropriates $25 million for "Occupant Protection Incentive Grants", $124.5 million for "Safety Belt Performance Grants", $29 million for "High Visibility Enforcement", and $6 million for "Child Safety and Booster Seat Grants". These amounts are unchanged from last year. The bill is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

June 5, 2006. NHTSA's latest seatbelt harassment campaign is now officially over. Only ten states participated. Many state transportation departments and state police departments no longer mention seatbelts and air bags on their web sites at all. The light is finally beginning to dawn. It's too bad this couldn't have happened sooner, before seatbelts and air bags killed and severely injured thousands of people. This is what happens when governments interfere in people's private lives and politicians think they are smarter than the people who elected them.

June 2, 2006. The following states are currently running seatbelt harassment campaigns: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maine, New York, Virginia, Wisonconsin and Illinois.  Of these, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Maine have secondary seatbelt laws and are thus running these campaigns in violation of their own state law.

In spite of intense pressure from NHTSA, only ten of the fifty states are now running seatbelt harassment campaigns.

Two additional items of interest. In Ohio the police are still conducting  high school seatbelt propaganda campaigns. We call this "the high school ploy". Under this ploy, which, like all such ploys, was thought up by NHTSA, the police  (or the state highway "safety" department, which is the same thing) find some teenager with a friend who was killed in a traffic accident. They then bamboozle or bribe her (it's usually a girl) into believing, or saying she believes, that her friend would have been saved if he had been wearing a seatbelt. (Never mind the fact that the friend slammed into a tree at 80 mph and was crushed to death). Then they take her around to the different high schools in the state to promote the seatbelt scam. Such teenagers are not always easy to find. In one west coast state they had to go to the east coast to find one and flew her across the country at taxpayer expense to run their campaign. High school students are a lot smarter than grown-ups think.

In another development of interest, the Tennessee state police delivered a report on seatbelt enforcement to the state legislature, as required by law. The report states that they obtained 32,145 seatbelt convictions in 2005. The report says "convictions", not number of seatbelt tickets issued. This contrasts with 36,978 seatbelt convictions obtained in 2001. In this connection it is worth noting that Tennessee did not get a primary seatbelt law until 2004. For the full report see http://www.state.tn.us/safety/06safetybelt.pdf

May 16, 2006: NHTSA PLANS NATIONWIDE POLICE HARASSMENT CAMPAIGN

On Monday morning, May 15, an article was posted on Yahoo under the headline:

48 MILLION REFUSE TO USE SEAT BELTS

The article went on to say that there would be a massive, nationwide, seatbelt harassment campaign from May 22 to June 4, 2006, involving police roadblocks, check points and special "police seat belt patrols". It added that this campaign would be funded by the "Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety" and run by an organization called "Buckle Up America". It stated further that this organization had hired another organization, called "The Academy for Education Development" to run the campaign. This organization was described as a non-profit public relations firm.

We need to understand what is going on here. Buckle Up America is one of the many phony front organizations created by NHTSA to promote the seatbelt scam. The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) is another. While NHTSA runs ACTS, the federal government has actually succeeded in forcing the automobile manufacturers to pay for it. How they did this is discussed elsewhere in this web-site (see holdorf2 and HR3058nma). We checked the web-site of the Academy for Education Development and found no mention of their role in this campaign. That doesn't mean anything. They may just not be anxious to admit their role in this sordid scheme.

The article was somewhat misleading since there is no federal primary seatbelt law and no federal police in this country and so NHTSA cannot impose such a campaign on the nation. What they can and will do is to pressure states to run such campaigns and offer to pay for them. Also, click-it-or-ticket campaigns are illegal in states with secondary seatbelt laws. This has not kept such states from running such campaigns. They simply change the name to "click-it-don't-risk-it" and, to be in technical compliance with state law, the police stop motorists on some other pretext and then give them a seatbelt ticket. States are anxious to run these campaigns because, under 23 USC 406, they become eligible for federal grants if they can get their seatbelt usage rate up to 85%.

NHTSA is running these campaigns as authorized by congress under 23 USC 405, (high visibility enforcement) and 23 USC 402 ("encourage" the use of seatbelts). They are funded as authorized by PL 109-59, with funds appropriated under PL 109-115. The language originally proposed in HR 3058 (as written by the then director of NHTSA, Jeffrey Runge), would have specifically authorized the expenditure of funds for paid advertising to promote the seatbelt scam and would have allotted $10,000,000 directly to the NHTSA Administrator (i.e., himself) to run these seatbelt harassment campaigns ("national safety belt mobilization").  This was taken out in conference but the language contained in PL 109-115 and 23 USC 402 and 405 would provide a legal basis for what NHTSA is doing.

       You can see for yourself what is going on here by visiting the Buckle Up America web-site. Or you can just click on this link.

HAWAII HB 1899: Governor Lingle vetoes moped helmet bill. This bill  passed both houses. The legislature debated this bill from January 19 to May 2. It finally went to conference. The conference report has not yet been posted. The house version said effective July 1,  2096. The senate version said effective on passage. The legislature adjourned on May 4.
Comment: Isn't it interesting how legislators always seem to wait until the last minute to pass these Orwellian bills and then rush for the exits? We have seen this time and again. This year we saw it in Alabama, in Colorado and twice in Hawaii. It's true that the bill in Colorado failed by a narrow margin, but the proponents thought it might pass.

HAWAII: SB 427: (May 4, 2006) SB 427 has passed both houses and been sent to the governor. This bill mandates "child safety (or booster) seats" for children up to eight years old and up to 4 feet 9 inches tall, making Hawaii the first and only state to actually pass this latest crackpot brainwave of NHTSA. This presents Governor Lingle with an interesting problem. So far, the people of Hawaii have no idea what is hanging over their heads. If the governor signs this bill there will be hell to pay when they find out. ("You want me to do WHAT with my eight year old?!!"). Hardly anyone in the Hawaii state legislature dared to vote against this bill. So far, the governor has not said a word about this bill, at least in public. The governor now has 45 business days to veto this bill. If she does nothing, the bill becomes law. Our guess is that this is what will happen. The next question is whether the police will actually try to enforce it.

MISSOURI HB 1378. This long and insane bill, which contained, at the very end, a provision to raise the age and weight limits for children for which booster seats are required, is now dead. It never even came to the floor of the house. Mr. StOnge, who was the sponsor of this bill, keeps introducing this type of legislation even though he has no support for it among his colleagues. He can get it through the tranportation committee, because he happens to be the chairman of that committee, but that's as far as it goes. Last year, when he introduced the primary seatbelt law bill on the floor of the house, not a single member rose to speak in support.

COLORADO HB 1125 DEFEATED On May 3, 2006, the Colorado House defeated the primary seatbelt law bill, HB 1125. This bill is now dead.

COLORADO SB 224: Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders. The amended conference report has passed both houses. The final bill provides strong protections for the motorist, quite unlike the bill passed by the senate.   The way it was passed in the senate on third reading on April 14, practically anyone who might even remotely be interested had the right to view the data on your Event Data Recorder. The house passed this bill on second reading in heavily amended form on May 2, which seemed to provide some protection for the motorist. The Senate refused to accept the amendments and asked for a conference which met with amazing speed and reported. The House, on May 5, amended the conference report, making the protection even stronger.

The Acting Administrator of NHTSA is a woman by the name of Jacqueline Glassman. She is a lawyer and has no professional training in any field connected with safety.

ALABAMA SB 38: April 26, 2006: Governor Riley signs SB 38, the "child safety seat" bill. The bill requires "child safety seats" for children up to 6 years of age, imposes a fine of $25 per violation, and assesses penalty points, one point for the first violation and two points for each subsequent violation.

ARIZONA HOUSE BILL HB 2576: This bill, which would have raised the upper age limit at which children are required to ride in "child safety seats" from 5 to 9 years, FAILED IN THE HOUSE ON 3/09/06 BY A VOTE OF 19 TO 40.

MISSOURI: 3/8/06:  HB 1391 Passed by House. HB 1391 would increase the age of children required to be in "child safety seats" from 4 to 8 years, require the state to engage in seatbelt propaganda "in accordance with the provisions of 23 USC 402", and raises the fine to $50.
3/15/06: This bill has now been replaced by HB 1378. This bill is described as "a bill to increase fines for speeding in work zones" but is, in fact, a very long bill, which, in addition to complex rules regarding speeding in work zones, contains a long and complex section on drivers licenses, reaffirms that the Missouri seatbelt law is secondary, sets the fine for seatbelt violations at $10, requires proof that lack of a seatbelt contributed to the injuries in a legal case, and so on. Buried at the end of this long and complex bill is a complex section on "child safety seats", with various provisions regarding age and weight for "child safety seats", seatbelts for children under certain circumstances, and so on. It also says the state shall promulgate standards for child safety seats "beginning September 28, 1983." This is not a misprint on our part. That is what the bill says. Passed by the House Rules Committee on March 16, 2006, in secret session.

KENTUCKY: Representative Wilkey, the chief sponsor of HB 86, a bill to make the Kentucky seatbelt law primary, introduced an amendment to declare the bill an emergency measure. This meant that if the bill passes it would become law immediately on the governor's signature rather than ninety days thereafter. Wilkey stated as the reason for his amendment that if the law went into effect before July 1, 2006, Kentucky could qualify for federal seatbelt incentive grants on October 1, 2006, whereas if the law went into effect after July 1, 2006, Kentucky would not be eligible for these grants until October 1, 2007. (Since the congress has not yet appropriated any money for seatbelt incentive grants for fiscal 2007, let alone 2008, Mr. Wilkey was taking a lot for granted). The amendment passed. The effect of the amendment, however, was to raise the total number of votes needed for passage of the bill from a majority of those present and voting to a majority of the whole house, a majority of the whole house being 51 votes. When the bill was  put to a vote, the yeas were 49 and the nays were 48. Mr Wilkey had gambled and lost.
Under Kentucky's arcane rules, members can continue to offer amendments to this bill, but my guess is that after two days of bitter debate, the house is not going to be in a   hurry to take this bill up again, given all the other measures they have to consider.
We thank Mr. Robert Jenkins of the Kentucky state legislature for explaining some of this to us and you can find his message under messages.

KENTUCKY HB 372 Would have raised the age limit for which children are required to be strapped into "child booster seats" to eight years and applied it to children up to 4 feet 9 inches tall. It would have made violation a primary offense. Passed House 81-14 on February 15. Sent to Senate transportation committee on February 21. The committee sent this bill to the senate with a favorabe recommendation but the senate did not take it up.  The legislature has now adjourned.
Comment: NHTSA, which wrote this bill, tried to sell it in many different states. Only Hawaii actually passed it and Alabama passed a watered down version.

New letters and picture: We found the original clipping of the great letter by Michelle Ford and so have reproduced it in our letters section along with a new letter from our local paper. Also, check out the new rollover picture from France in our picture gallery.

The new Secretary of Transportation. The new Secretary of Transportation is Mary E. Peters. Prior to her present appointment, Ms. Peters served as director of the Arizona State Department of Transportation and then as director of the Federal Highway Administration. Her experience is mainly in the field of highway construction. She is a graduate of the University of Phoenix and also attended the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government; but, apparently, president Bush did not hold this against her.

Ms. Peters was quoted in USA Today (www.usatoday.com) as saying, "seat belt use dipped slightly this fiscal year". Notice she did not say "this year". She said "this fiscal year". That's a pretty good indication of what the seatbelt scam is all about. Apparently, she had no further comment on  the subject. This is not at all what the seatbelt scammers were hoping to hear. It seems that the Bush administration, sobered by their defeat in the recent elections, is trying to win back their conservative base. If so, putting an end to the seatbelt scam would be a good place to start.

June 15, 2006. Legislative update:

The congress is now considering the appropriation bills for fiscal 2007. On June 9, 2006, the House Appropriations Committee reported out HR 5576, the appropriation bill for the Departments of Transportation, Treasury, HUD, the Judiciary and the District of Columbia.

The House spent most of June 13 and 14 "debating" this bill. The "debate" consisted mostly of members adding millions of dollars to the bill for their own pet projects. The House then passed the amended bill by a vote of 406 to 22 and sent it to the senate.

Buried deep inside this bill are the appropriations for seatbelt propaganda, harassment and coercion. The Committee basically took the amounts from last year's conference report on HR 3058 and pasted them into the new bill. Thus, the new bill appropriates $220 million  for 23 USC 402 versus $217 million last year. It appropriates $25 million for "Occupant Protection Incentive Grants", $124.5 million for "Safety Belt Performance Grants", $29 million for "High Visibility Enforcement", and $6 million for "Child Safety and Booster Seat Grants". These amounts are unchanged from last year. The bill is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

 Message and Article from William J. Holdorf. Shortly before his tragic death we received a message and an article from Mr. William J. Holdorf, a leader in the fight against mandatory seatbelt laws.   The article is entitled "Freedom First". We have posted his message in our messages folder and links to his article in our documents folder. They are well worth reading.

Was Runge ordered to lie? We now have some indication that Jeffrey Runge was actually ordered to lie in his testimony before the Senate and House Transportation Committees. If this is true then what we have here is not merely a case of perjury, but subornation of perjury as well. If, in fact, the committee staffs, acting on orders, wrote Runge's testimony for him, that raises some interesting legal and moral questions. Perjury is a felony punishable by up to five years in jail, under federal law. Considering the number of people who have been killed by seatbelts and airbags, however, it might be more appropriate if the charge were mass murder.

November 27, 2006 update: Reviewing a survey of reports from around the nation we find that only one state, Missouri, is currently running a click-it-or-ticket campaign. One is one too many, but since is the time of year when the government used to get half the states in the union   to run such campaigns, that represents considerable progress. If you know of any other states which are currently running such campaigns, please let us know.
There are other things going on, but since we do not yet understand what they imply, we are going to wait until things become clearer before reporting on them. Right now we are cautiously optimistic, but we are watching.

Seatbelt harassment in a Idaho:

            November 14, 2005. Idaho state police begin massive seatbelt harassment campaign.

On November 14, 2005, the Idaho state police, without even waiting for the president to sign HR 3058, began a seatbelt "special enforcement"campaign consisting of threats, harassment and intimidation, neglecting to mention that Idaho has a secondary seatbelt law which makes it illegal for police to stop a motorist for not wearing a seatbelt. If you thought you were safe because your state has a secondary seatbelt law, think again. Read all about it (click on the image).

President signs HR 3058, containing  millions of dollars in seatbelt bribe and harassment money.

            November 30, 2005. President signs HR 3058.

The HR 3058 conference report was passed by the House on November 18 by a vote of 392 to 31. It was passed by the Senate on November 21 by unanimous consent. It was signed by the president on November 30 and is now P.L. 109-115. Click on the pork barrel to see the relevant provisions of the law. Notice how neatly what is going on in Idaho ties in with the provisions of this bill. They are engaging in "special enforcement" to help qualify for a share in the $25 million for "Occupant Protection Grants", under 23 USC 405, paid for out of the $29 million allotted for "High Visibility Enforcement". They claim they are now up to 78% seatbelt use (nowhere near based on my observation). If, by their reign of terror, they can get it up to 85%, they can qualify for a share in the $124.5 allotted for "Safety Belt Performance Grants" under 23 USC 406. Notice also, that in order to qualify for a share in the $217 million allotted for 23 USC 402, the state must have, among other things, "a program to encourage the proper use of seatbelts". While the part about allotting millions for seatbelt propaganda was taken out in conference, 23 USC 405 provides that "special enforcement" campaigns must "emphasize maximum publicity for the program".

All this has, no doubt, been pointed out to them by NHTSA. Because the Idaho press releases are almost identical to those issued in other states to justify seatbelt harassment campaigns, one suspects that these, too, came from NHTSA. They didnt just make this stuff up. It would be too much of a coincidence. No doubt it was part of a package which is sent out to all the states every year by NHTSA, containing "suggested press releases", suggested "talking points", forms and directions for grant applications, and lots of other helpful information. States would be unlikley to stage these seatbelt harassment campaigns on their own initiative, given how unpopular they are. This campaign did not originate in Boise. It orginated in Washington, D.C.

Comment: December, 2006:There has always been a fine line between giving the police too little power, in which case they are not able to protect us against criminals, and too much power, in which case the police themselves become the danger. So conscious were the British of this danger that they refused for centuries to have a police force in London, even though London was one of the most violent and dangerous cities in europe. It was not until the 1830s that Prime Minister Robert Peel was able to  establish a London police force, and even then he was able to do it only on condition that the police not be allowed to bear arms.
        When a government encourages police to become "agressive" it is crossing that line between too little power and too much. HR 5576, which will soon be taken up by the United States Senate, contains money, and language, to continue "high visibility enforcement".
        We hire the police to protect us from criminals, not to harass us or interfere in our lives. Unfortunately, there are some legislators who do not understand this. If these people are not stopped, they will destroy that freedom for which this country was founded and for which so many have given their lives.
        You can do something to help preserve your liberty and security by asking your senators to take that  money, and that language, out of the bill.

Dan Goebel has been fighting a seatbelt ticket in the state of Washington for more than two years. He is being very shabbily treated. Please visit his web-site, www.dangoebel.com and show your support for Dan in his courageous fight for freedom.
William J. Holdorf In this paper, William J. Holdorf explains how the seatbelt lobbyists got the congress to force the car companies to switch sides on seatbelt laws.  We thank Sheldon Richman of the Freeman Foundation for calling this paper to our attention.  While this paper tells the history, the car companies today are being forced by the government to contribute to an organization called ACTS, which is controlled by NHTSA, one of the many phony front organizations created by NHTSA to spread lying propaganda about seatbelts.

Here's a little note on the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. General Mark V. Rosenker spent almost his entire career as a public relations officer in the air force.  His official biography states that he also worked for a civilian public relations firm which numbered among his clients the American Safety Belt Council, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, and the Safety Helmet Council of America. This is described as "experience in transportation safety dating back some thirty years".  There. Dont you feel safer already?             

NOTE:
NTSB is headed by General Mark Rosenker, a former Air Force public relations officer with no professional knowledge of transportation safety.
NHTSA is currently headed by  Acting Administrator Strickland, a former staffer of the senate commerce committee which is the real power behind NHTSA. Mr. Strickland is a lawayer with no technical knowledge. He knows absolutely nothing about automotive safety.
CPSC is headed by Inez Tenebaum a lawyer with no professional knowledge of consumer product safety.
Are these the people you want to trust with your life?

Speaking of rollovers: From the Idaho Statesman, April 24, 2008: Two people died and one was severely injured in a single car rollover of a Jeep Cherokee, on Idaho 55, a little after 1 a.m., Wednesday. "Everyone in the car was wearing a seatbelt". "Police suspect alcohol was involved".Later in the morning, "McDaneld died after his pickup truck rolled over several times on I-84.....McDaneld was wearing a seatbelt". In another accident, a 16 year old boy drove "a sports utility vehicle (at) about 70 mph through a red light and into a semi truck....was pulled from the burning wreckage... died from injuries sustained in the fiery crash". No mention of seatbelts for this one but we know from having seen many such accidents that he would have been crushed as the vehicle was stove in and trapped in the wreck.  (Note: the Statesman on line edition does not mention seatbelts, but the print edition does.)