Las Vegas Sun

November 8, 2009

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Letter: Seat belts, helmets save more than lives

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

I retired to Nevada in 1986 from New York state, where the Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate had passed seat belt and helmet laws to protect the taxpayers from serious financial liability.

They had found that when an accident occurred, the people inside a vehicle not wearing seat belts were frequently ejected and suffered serious injury or death.

With a motorcycle accident, the ones without helmets would often have their skulls cracked like eggshells. In either case, if they lived, medical care costs would often require multiple operations and weeks, if not months, of hospital care.

Even if they had medical insurance, those policies are usually capped at $1 million, so either with or without, the taxpayers were liable for their medical care. If they died, you might think that that's a good thing for the taxpayers, but no. Whether those in the car lived or died, taxpayers had to pay for the cost of supporting their families, providing food, shelter, clothing, living expenses and medical care.

It is so much easier for people to buckle up, or clap on that helmet, and save the rest of us a lot of money.

Richard J. Mundy, Las Vegas

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