11-16-2006, 06:09 PM
[#505000]I hope I don't start a lively debate here with what I am about to preach but......[/#505000]
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[black][#505000]I too hate to see stuff become mandatory because of the problems with people who choose not to use their safety equipment, but first off if everyone did it it wouldn't need to be made a law, and if it was a law and everyone did it it we would have the same outcome as if we could convince everyone to wear one without. Making it a law encourages the honest people to do it when they otherwise might not. A ticket, and subsequent fine can be a good educational tool for the stubborn.[/#505000] [/black]
[#505000]The argument that it's a personal choice that affects "only me" is hogwash and always has been. From a automobile standpoint the cost of medical attention, from injuries that could have been avoided by wearing a seat belt are immense. [/#505000]
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[#505000]The cost of flying search planes, boats, expensive radar units, divers, the pay for the people to operate this stuff and the man hours to recover your body because you chose not to wear a PFD is staggering. I can tell you the cost of the Strawberry operation so far would likey cover your mortgage with some left over. Who pays for this? You and I do in our taxes. All could have been possibly been avoided with a couple of $60PFD's[/#505000]
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[#505000]If you normally wear a PFD a law making it mandatory wouldn't affect you at all. It's like a law that says don't kill people. Since I hope none of us would even think about that the law has no affect on us. It's a useless law when applied to you or me, and doesn't really govern our everyday behavior. [/#505000]
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[#505000]Inconviencing a few knuckleheads, and fining a few violators seems a small price to pay compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to fish their bodies out of a lake. [/#505000]
[#505000]Now monetary costs aside. How does someone who choses to make their personal choice to use or not use a PFD affect their friends, family and neighbors? How about their kids?[/#505000]
[#505000]What about those rescue workers who have to spend extra time away from their friends, family, and fishing to come look for your corpse? How about the psycological effects on them when they find your bloated, fish chewed corpse with dead lifeless staring eyes. How about the traffic cops and ambulance personal who have to deal with the mental trauma of dealing with your mangled corpse? Severed limbs, collapsed skulls, broken necks, blood guts, and gore because you chose not to wear a seat belt? [/#505000]
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[#505000]How about your family worried sick because you fell out of the boat and are missing. Who will pay the bills now? Who will your son or daughter grow up with as a father? How does mom tell the kids daddy is gone? [/#505000]
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[#505000]Seatbelts and PFD's the two issues are very much the same. Don't try and buffalo us, or even yourself into thinking it's a personal choice which affects only you. It's a choice that affects you, your wife, your kids, strangers, tax payers and a myriad of other people. [/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
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[#505000][size 2]The idea behind these laws isn't so much to protect you from you as to protect your family from you, to protect tax payers from you, and to protect search and rescue from you. The protect you from you is the very last part ofwhat these laws are put into place for. [/size][/#505000]
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[size 2][#505000]I know I already said it but the only people who oppose these types of laws are those who generally don't use their safety equipment anyway. The fisherman who wears a PFD, and who buckles up when driving to or from the lake could care less if it were mandatory or not since he does it anyway.[/#505000] [/size]
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[#505000][size 2]*clears throat and steps down off the soap box*[/size][/#505000][/size]
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[size 1]I think thats it great that boaters and fisherman want to recommit to wearing a pfd,yahoo good for them. If people wore thier pfd's more it would probable saves lives ,but as I have stated before,the last thing I want is for it to become mandatory to have to wear one.Education will work better then another law protecting me from me. [/size]
[black][#505000]I too hate to see stuff become mandatory because of the problems with people who choose not to use their safety equipment, but first off if everyone did it it wouldn't need to be made a law, and if it was a law and everyone did it it we would have the same outcome as if we could convince everyone to wear one without. Making it a law encourages the honest people to do it when they otherwise might not. A ticket, and subsequent fine can be a good educational tool for the stubborn.[/#505000] [/black]
[#505000]The argument that it's a personal choice that affects "only me" is hogwash and always has been. From a automobile standpoint the cost of medical attention, from injuries that could have been avoided by wearing a seat belt are immense. [/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
[#505000]The cost of flying search planes, boats, expensive radar units, divers, the pay for the people to operate this stuff and the man hours to recover your body because you chose not to wear a PFD is staggering. I can tell you the cost of the Strawberry operation so far would likey cover your mortgage with some left over. Who pays for this? You and I do in our taxes. All could have been possibly been avoided with a couple of $60PFD's[/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
[#505000]If you normally wear a PFD a law making it mandatory wouldn't affect you at all. It's like a law that says don't kill people. Since I hope none of us would even think about that the law has no affect on us. It's a useless law when applied to you or me, and doesn't really govern our everyday behavior. [/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
[#505000]Inconviencing a few knuckleheads, and fining a few violators seems a small price to pay compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to fish their bodies out of a lake. [/#505000]
[#505000]Now monetary costs aside. How does someone who choses to make their personal choice to use or not use a PFD affect their friends, family and neighbors? How about their kids?[/#505000]
[#505000]What about those rescue workers who have to spend extra time away from their friends, family, and fishing to come look for your corpse? How about the psycological effects on them when they find your bloated, fish chewed corpse with dead lifeless staring eyes. How about the traffic cops and ambulance personal who have to deal with the mental trauma of dealing with your mangled corpse? Severed limbs, collapsed skulls, broken necks, blood guts, and gore because you chose not to wear a seat belt? [/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
[#505000]How about your family worried sick because you fell out of the boat and are missing. Who will pay the bills now? Who will your son or daughter grow up with as a father? How does mom tell the kids daddy is gone? [/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
[#505000]Seatbelts and PFD's the two issues are very much the same. Don't try and buffalo us, or even yourself into thinking it's a personal choice which affects only you. It's a choice that affects you, your wife, your kids, strangers, tax payers and a myriad of other people. [/#505000]
[#505000][/#505000]
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Quote: [size 1]another law protecting me from me. [/size]
[#505000][size 2]The idea behind these laws isn't so much to protect you from you as to protect your family from you, to protect tax payers from you, and to protect search and rescue from you. The protect you from you is the very last part ofwhat these laws are put into place for. [/size][/#505000]
[#505000][size 2][/size][/#505000]
[size 2][#505000]I know I already said it but the only people who oppose these types of laws are those who generally don't use their safety equipment anyway. The fisherman who wears a PFD, and who buckles up when driving to or from the lake could care less if it were mandatory or not since he does it anyway.[/#505000] [/size]
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[#505000][size 2]*clears throat and steps down off the soap box*[/size][/#505000][/size]
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