Allow people, not laws, to make safety choices.
As we are now in the second month of the Trump presidency, I am certainly concerned about how our country will fare under his administration. But something that could at least make it worthwhile would be if President Trump truly adheres to his mantra of being an unconventional president by finally getting rid of the overreaching “nanny legislation” that has been gripping our country like an invasive species for more than two decades.
This type of legislation is prominent in the realm of transportation. We’ve mandated seat belts, we’ve mandated bicycle helmets for children, and every time some new complicated safety device is invented, the government ends up requiring it on all new vehicles. While I would not recommend driving without a seat belt, this should be the choice of the driver or passenger and not mandated by the government, since the use of this equipment primarily affects only the users and the people they know. “Click it or ticket” has no place in a free society.
Even back in 1990, before much of today’s safety equipment was required or widely available, the U.S. highway death rate was about 2.1 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. This means that at 15,000 miles a year, you would’ve had to drive more than 3,000 years before the odds of dying in a crash “caught up with you.”
And as we have seen with the Takata air-bag fiasco, sometimes forcing this equipment in our vehicles has unintended consequences.
Now, automakers are starting to come out with autonomous features and fully autonomous cars. I have no problem with this technology being brought to the market, and if autonomous cars can be perfected to the point that their accident rates are comparable to those of people driving conventional cars, they could be a boon to the disabled.
However, this technology should not be made standard on all cars. Someday, I may need to buy a new car, and if I do, I do not want to buy an over-engineered vehicle with dozens of extra electromechanical systems that could break down and be expensive to repair. I want a nice, simple car that I can easily modify and customize, and that I can rely on for a long time. I certainly want my car to have a well-designed structure that won’t just fold up in a crash, but I do not want my car to suddenly wrest control from me, and I prefer that there not be multiple explosive charges, in the form of air bags, placed all around me.
So, how about it, Mr. Trump? Are you going to be like most of the other Republicans, who claim to be all about smaller government but continue to allow these laws and regulations to exist? Or are you going to finally allow people to make their own decisions regarding safety equipment that primarily only affects themselves? That would truly help “make America great again.”