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Posted on 06/12/2005 1:59:09 PM PDT by martin_fierro
PennDOT revises its motorcycle statistics
By HARRY YANOSHAK
Bucks County Courier Times
After its numbers buoyed bareheaded motor bikers, PennDOT skidded and wiped them out.
Motorcycle deaths really haven't dramatically dropped in the first full year since the state repealed the mandatory helmet law, state Department of Transportation officials now say.
Originally, PennDOT reported a nearly 10 percent drop in fatalities statewide between 2003 and last year (from 174 to 157 deaths). Now, the agency's data, confirmed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says there were 156 fatalities in 2003 - one less than reported last year.
Turns out PennDOT counted fatalities from all-terrain vehicle crashes in its recent report on motorcycle accident deaths in 2003, an agency spokesman said, because reporting forms didn't include an ATV check-off box.
Now PennDOT intends to go back to where it started and examine 2002's data to see if it needs to be revised, agency spokesman Steve Chismar said Friday.
The numbers have been criticized from either side of the helmet debate.
PennDOT's original numbers encouraged biker groups who supported Gov. Ed Rendell's July 2003 repeal of the 35-year-old helmet law. But the revised data shows only that deaths haven't dramatically spiked as some had predicted, said Charles Umbenhauer, lobbyist for the 6,000-member Pennsylvania Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education.
Umbenhauer said it's too early to draw conclusions about the helmet debate from one year's worth of figures, whether or not the numbers are revised. His organization lobbied to have the mandatory helmet law repealed; motorcyclists 21 and older who have at least two years' experience or have passed a state-approved safety course aren't required to wear a helmet.
He said a better study of injuries and deaths should take into account the growing popularity of motorcycles - 286,531 registrations in 2004, up 22,835 from 2003 - and factors such as weather and road conditions. Of the deaths reported in 2004, more than half of the riders wore a helmet.
Motorcycle safety courses and alert drivers - not helmets - save riders' lives, Umbenhauer said. Alcohol and driver inattention lead to rider deaths, he said. Click Here!
"We're not anti-helmet, we're pro-choice," he said. "We believe in the freedom to choose whether to use a helmet."
Yet riders who wore helmets had a better chance of survival and avoiding a serious brain injury, according to the 1,200-member Pennsylvania chapter of the College of Emergency Physicians.
The doctors' group conducted its own informal, unscientific, review of 135 emergency room cases across the state between Memorial Day and Labor Day of last year and found that 49 percent of motorcyclists who suffered traumatic brain injuries had not worn helmets.
Head injuries are the leading cause of death in motorcycle accidents, according to the NHTSA.
"As emergency physicians, we see the tragic consequences of motorcyclists who do not wear helmets," according to a statement from Dr. Douglas McGee, an emergency room physician at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Motorcyclists who don't wear a helmet are 40 percent more likely to die from a head injury in a crash, said McGee, the president of the physicians group.
"I don't need statistics to prove the value of helmet use. I've seen too many motorcycle accidents in my many years of practicing emergency medicine," he said.
2005 motorcycle deaths in Bucks County
Date, Name, age, hometown, Location, Helmet?
Thursday Bradford Albrecht, 26, Warminster County Line Rd, Warminster No
May 1 David Blizzard, 55, Middletown Bridgetown Pk, Lower Southampton Yes
April 9 Vitaly Tsirkin, 21, Lower Southampton I-95 Park and Ride lot, Bensalem No
April 10 Christopher Kelly, 31, Lehigh County Old Bethlehem Rd, Haycock Yes
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It's a good idea, but it doesn't need to be the law.
It would have been actually more rememarkable if the study showed PennDOT had gotten something right.
Which means 51 percent of motorcyclists who suffered traumatic brain injuries DID wear a helmet. Or am I missing something?
Yep...odds are 50/50 your gonna hurt your skull if you wear one, and in THAT study, a fifty one percent chance you WON'T if ya DON"T!
40 plus years of riding and I still say Let those that ride decide....
Been down hard 4 times, both with and without the brain bucket, never hurt my skull without, but damned near had by neck broke when I DID!
I know the flame war is going to start on this...so let me say just one more thing before the helmet nazis start their screaming...
I worked the better part of a decade as a trauma tech in ER, the case can be made for both points of view...however...the worst injuries I have witnessed in M/C wrecks were those who DID wear the helmet...The majority of injuries below the head is what caused their demise.
Another way to look at it is, that those who didn't make my ER were killed outright by head injuries that MIGHT have made a difference...
It's 50/50 out there folks...pays your money and takes your chances!
I DO wear one when I go to the big city, but hey, if I'm off to the local country store for a newspaper and what not...leave me alone will yas???
True Dat.
That's true of probably half of our existing law.
"That's true of probably half of our existing law."
AMEN.
Statistics are manipulated by whoever wants to make their point. Therefore, statistics are worthless, as are many of the laws that are supposed to protect us from ourselves.
Be Ever Vigilant!
correlation does not equal causation.
The NHTSA nazi's are notorious for cooking the numbers. They don't mention the helmet standard has zero neck standards or that the helmets are only tested to 15 mph. (FMVSS 218)
If anything this is a stronger corelation of new riders to accidents and reckless automobile driving. I would submit the aging of the population has more to do with accidents (little old lady says "i did not see a motorcycle") than any other factors.
Motorcyclists need to ride on the assumption that NO ONE can see them.
I have a very important brain, it helps me make decisions. :-)
i'm against helmet laws but not wearing one is not smart.
wear your leathers people and your FULL FACE helmet.
postaldave
www.5united.net
www.postaldave.com
I'm with you postaldave.
I think forcing someone to wear a helmet is unnatural interference in the Law of Natural Selection. The subjects from the inferior gene pool will eliminate themselves if only left to their natural inclinations.
That's true about harley riders being the only ones that don't think helmets are cool anymore but many sport bike riders are equally motivated by vanity, as you mentioned. Many wear 600 dollar helmets and a tank-top and shorts. The pictoral definition of a Squid.
Yeah speaking of harley riders in low speed crashes, a friend of one of my fellow crotch-rocketeers was riding his down a gravel road with his girlfriend on the back. He lost control and went down, at probably 20-25 mph. She got some scratches and roadrash but no broken bones. He was wearing a half-helmet like harley people are so fond of (minimal protection). He hit his chin on a big rock as he was sliding. His jaw was crushed-- he couldn't breath-- and he died at the scene.
A good buddy of mine from high school was riding his harley home after an evening out with his harley buds, drinking at a local bar. He had a helmet-- but when he put it on he didn't strap it on. He lost control going around a corner and his head hit the curb as he slid. He was in a coma for 6 months. He was not the same person when he woke up, mentally or physically. He's like an 80-year old man all the time, only slower. And that's been over 20 years ago. He lost the best years of his life. And he's been on total social security disability ever since. A burden on the general public.
It's not just whether you wear a helmet, it's what kind it is and how it's used. I think statistically there's plenty of evidence to indicate helmets save lives, just like taking an MSF course saves lives. It's the choices you make that determine your likelihood of survival-- and choosing safety over vanity is the right personal choice for me.
Head injuries are the leading cause of death in motorcycle accidents, according to the NHTSA. Head injuries are the leading cause of death in automobile accidents, according to the NHTSA . . .
Of the deaths reported in 2004, more than half of the riders wore a helmet.
Wait a minute! More than half? What gives?
But the revised data shows only that deaths haven't dramatically spiked as some had predicted . . .
This despite a dramatic spike in registrations in 2004, up 22,835 from 2003, according to the article. Data from another article (written by a pro-helmet, non-riding, nanny-state shill) states,
"In 2002, there were 104 fatalities involving a motorcycle in Pennsylvania and 29 of the riders were not wearing helmets, six were not wearing helmets properly and nine are listed as "unknown," said PennDOT spokesman Steve Chizmar. In 2003, there were 171 motorcyclist fatalities, 38 of whom were not wearing helmets, five were wearing them improperly and eight unknowns, Chizmar said.
Hmmm. In 2004, the fatalities dropped to 156, despite a 22,835 increase in motorcycle registrations. This does not bode well for the Pennsylvania helmet Nazis . . .
Are you reading the same article I am? According to the posted article, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. Even your anecdotal information consists of riders wearing helmets.
It's not about "choosing safety over vanity", as you so eloquently put it. What's inside your head positively influences your safety much more than what's on it. Putting on a helmet does not make you invincible. A false sense of security is just that; false.
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