There’s a combination of anti-regulation sentiments and poverty. Rural towns in particular have a lot of old ass beaters driving around and people don’t have the income to fix or replace those vehicles. But yeah, that’s also where you get a lot of the “gub’ment can take it from my cold dead hands” types of attitudes, even (especially?) when it’s for the safety and well-being of people. Hell people fought restaurant smoking laws up until the early 2010’s, and some states still have no helmet law for motorcycles.
There’s a combination of anti-regulation sentiments and poverty. Rural towns in particular have a lot of old ass beaters driving around and people don’t have the income to fix or replace those vehicles. But yeah, that’s also where you get a lot of the “gub’ment can take it from my cold dead hands” types of attitudes, even (especially?) when it’s for the safety and well-being of people. Hell people fought restaurant smoking laws up until the early 2010’s, and some states still have no helmet law for motorcycles.
Some states even got rid of the helmet laws they had.