Darwin on Hall Road

OK, so yesterday I was very nearly in an accident on Hall Road, and not because I was driving inattentively (see--there is a first time for everything after all). What in heaven's name happened? you ask, clinging desperately to the edge of your seat. Well, my Lovelies, I was almost physically harmed because there was an enormous traffic jam with subsequent gawker-delays, due to....wait for it...a Seat Belt Enforcement Zone. Really.

Now for those who have never seen one of these bad-boys, a Seat Belt Enforcement Zone is where the Po-Po create an area in which to identify and ticket drivers who are not wearing their seat belt as the law requires in the state of Michigan. In this particular instance they had 2 sheriff's cars in the Hall Road median with lights flashing right by the SBEZ sign--and the two sheriff's deputies were leaning on their cars, arms crossed, looking all menacing, just to let you know you are entering an area where serious, bad-ass police work is being done. So then they have about 143 other police cars from various agencies, cities and townships, all strategically placed along the road, in parking lots and driveways, all poised at the ready to issue citations. Macomb County also uses police officers on bicycles to drive along the cars stopped at the traffic signals to suss out these hardened criminals.

Now I am all for adhering to the laws of the land, and I for one always, always, always wear my seat belt. It would seem to me, however, that if The Man was really intent on keeping drivers safe on the roadways here in the D, they would be much better served to set up You Really Need to Stop at the Red Light Enforcement Zones, or better yet a couple of sobriety checkpoints on the Lodge after a Red Wings game. The SBEZ just seems like a lot of work for a $65 ticket that really only affects one individual. Personally, I firmly believe that the use of a seat belt really just comes down to Vehicular Natural Selection. If you are seriously dumb enough to not wear a seat belt,while hurtling through the air at 80 miles per hour, don't you kind of deserve whatever consequences might occur should you be thrown from said vehicle?

So yeah, I averted a collision, and worked late that night because the 5-0 on patrol made me late to the office. But it is OK, because I can sleep easy knowing that thousands of Macomb County tax-payer dollars were spent to give tickets to at least 6 or 7 unrestrained drivers. After all, I'm a Wayne County chick. Though it is slightly humbling to know that all those cops that drive past me doing a double-take, checking me out, are really just after one thing--my seat belt.