Hacker News Reader

Comment by thereare5lights | Hacker News Reader

Do you consider laws against drunk driving a violation of personal freedom and if not, why not?

Seriously? Regardless of your view on seat belt laws (or drunk driving laws for this matter) the difference is blindingly obvious: A drunk driver is _highly_ likely to kill someone else (I think I may have heard in the past that they are more likely to kill someone else than die themselves, although I'm not super confident on it). If you aren't wearing a seat belt, you're just going to kill yourself.

Not quite. Passengers without seat belts are a hazard to other individuals in the vehicle too. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y3InF19dzlM

WARNING: Disturbing

Here's a good wear your seatbelt advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHY69AFstE

That's a risk for the driver to assume or not assume

If you're not wearing a seatbelt and have a passenger in the car, you are highly likely to kill the passenger, especially if t boned.

While this does seem like it's true [0], at least in that case the other passengers know whether or not you are wearing a belt, and can, in extremis, choose not to ride with you (I'm going to ignore minors for the moment as that is a different and much more nuanced topic). When it comes to drunk drivers, other people on the road don't even know they are taking the risk. And of course, that ignores the fact that seatbelt laws do not differentiate between when you are driving alone (extremely common in the US) vs. with passengers.

[0]https://glofin.com/blog/consequences-of-not-wearing-a-seatbe...

Rear seat without a seat belt becomes a danger to people seating in front, for example.

Wrong. In a collision, you're literally a projectile when you don't wear a seat belt.