Make law, rescind law, make law, rescind law, make law, rescind law.
I'm so cornfused!
Oh look, goofy brother-in-law is gonna die too!!
Posted on 12/01/2003 7:38:02 AM PST by Holly_P
PRAIRIEVILLE, La. - In the smoky, windowless back room of Gail's Diner on Route 61, eight bikers gathered on a recent Sunday morning for a regular meeting of their motorcycle lobbying group.
A few days earlier, a federal agency had released figures showing the average number of motorcyclists killed in crashes had doubled in Louisiana in the first two years after the state repealed its mandatory helmet law.
The bikers at Gail's - a woman and seven men who roared up wearing denim and do-rags - believe that those numbers will be used as ammunition. "Every regular legislative session, there's been an attempt" to reinstitute a helmet law, said Ollie "Laddie" Elkins, president of the Louisiana branch of American Bikers Active Towards Education (ABATE). "So far, we've managed to beat them in committee."
The regular battle over helmets in Louisiana might just be a look into the future of Pennsylvania, where Gov. Rendell signed a law repealing the state's helmet law in September. The Louisiana debate pits avid bikers on one side against safety officials and doctors frustrated with the number of fallen motorcyclists with head injuries arriving at emergency rooms.
Elkins, his long, gray hair secured in a foot-long braid, said his group expected another challenge next year and feared that Gov.-elect Kathleen Blanco would sign it into law if it passes. A new mandatory helmet law would be just fine with emergency-room physicians, who believe allowing motorcyclists to ride without helmets is creating a public health problem.
They point to a Louisiana safety commission report that estimated that 46 deaths and 73 severe injuries could have been avoided if motorcyclists had worn helmets between 1999 and 2002. The study calculated that those casualties cost the citizens of Louisiana $102 million.
Departing Gov. Mike Foster, a biker himself, signed Louisiana's repeal into law in August 1999, saying it represented a move toward "less government."
"Government ought not tell us what we can do to protect ourselves," he said. "We should have enough sense to protect ourselves."
Under the Louisiana law, bikers 18 and older do not have to wear a helmet as long as they have proof of at least $10,000 in medical insurance coverage.
Pennsylvania now allows experienced motorcyclists over 21 to go "lidless." When the Keystone State's law went into effect Sept. 4, Pennsylvania became the 31st state to allow adult motorcyclists to ride without head protection. New Jersey has had a mandatory helmet law since the 1970s.
It's not yet clear that the Louisiana experience will be duplicated in Pennsylvania, but emergency-room physicians around the commonwealth are keeping a count of motorcycle accident casualties with the possible aim of launching a challenge.
Marilyn Heine, president-elect of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said she did not expect any attempt to overturn the law for two years, the time the state House Legislative Budget and Finance Committee has been given to study the effects of the repeal.
Even when its helmet law was in place, Pennsylvania's motorcycle deaths rose 42 percent between 1996 and 2002 - outpacing a 35 percent increase in ridership during that same time. After two decades of steady decline, U.S. motorcycle deaths also are up, by more than 50 percent since 1997.
A motorcyclist is now 26 times more likely to die in a crash than an automobile passenger, with 3,141 killed in 2001. Researchers are still exploring the causes of the sudden rise, and possible culprits include more motorcycles, bigger engines, older riders, increased alcohol consumption, and the repeal of helmet laws.
In a report released at the end of October, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said an average of 26 motorcyclists were killed in Louisiana in the two years before the state's helmet law was changed in 1999, and 55 in the two years after the repeal, a 111 percent increase.
The report, which also said motorcycle deaths increased by 58 percent in Kentucky after the repeal of that state's helmet law, did not specify the cause of deaths or indicate how many of the fatalities were not wearing a helmet.
A report prepared for the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission and issued this year showed that in cases where helmet use was known, bikers not wearing helmets and dying in accidents outnumbered those who did, by 1.6 to 1, after the repeal.
Both reports said the number of registered motorcycles and accidents had jumped in the years after repeal but not at a rate to match the increase in deaths.
"You can make numbers look like anything you want, say anything you want," said Travis "Blackie" Lawless, a St. James Parish motorcycle officer who wears a helmet on the job but does not when he is off-duty unless the weather is bad.
"Not wearing a helmet does not cause an accident," said Lawless, ABATE-Louisiana's vice president. "And just because you have a helmet on does not mean you're going to survive an accident."
The Louisiana study said a possible key factor in that state is that most bikers in Louisiana apparently have not taken a safety course needed to get the license endorsement to operate a motorcycle. Bikers without a motorcycle endorsement account for 62 percent of the fatalities in Louisiana, the report said.
Lawless and Elkins, a retired chemical-plant worker, agreed that many bikers do not have the safety skills needed to ride motorcycles.
"If [a biker] doesn't know his limitations, he is setting himself up for failure," Lawless said.
Still, the study said, "there is convincing evidence that a decline in helmet use is the most important factor contributing to death and severe injury."
Jim Aiken, an emergency-room doctor at New Orleans' Charity Hospital, could not agree more.
He said with certain injuries there is a "golden hour," during which emergency doctors can stabilize a patient and set the stage for recovery - but not with head injuries.
"Head injuries are a distinct form of injury," said Aiken, who also oversees doctors in Louisiana State University's emergency medicine residency program. "Once we get them, the damage is done. Brain injuries are immediate. There is no golden hour. There's a golden minute."
People who suffer head injuries in crashes but survive "often are left with a lingering health issues that are an enormous burden to society," the doctor said.
"Few realize what a horrible, horrible life it can be to be incapacitated," said Aiken, also a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "Being confined can be very painful not only to yourself but to your family as well."
He said the $10,000 in insurance coverage bikers are required to carry to ride helmetless would come nowhere near covering the cost of a lifetime of care, which often falls to the state.
But to the bikers, getting out on the highway on a Harley unencumbered with a helmet is a freedom issue, one with risk but a matter of choice.
"When it's your time, it's your time," said David Metige, a biker who also is a police officer. "I want to do something I enjoy. It's a feeling you can't match. A lot of people don't understand that."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact staff writer Joseph Gambardello at 856-779-3868 or jgambardello@phillynews.com.
Now that I'm a cager, I find myself practicing extra awareness around bikers (more space between vehicles, extra room on rainy days, watch your vehicle wake on rainy days, etc.). I still cuss when I see some freakin' idiot on a rice-burnin' crotch-rocket running between lanes of cars on the interstate at 90 mph, but I guess that's a sign of getting older.
When my kids are out of the house (and my wife lets me), I'm going to buy me that soft-tail Harley "one of these days". (smile)
Trauma-related injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 1 year to 44 years (CDC data, look it up yourself).
Trauma removes more citizens from productive life, either temporarily or permanently, than any other disease.
(If you want to get into the horribly technical details, google "Disability Adjusted Life Years" or check out http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/hnp/hddflash/workp/wp_00068.html).
With some editing and rearrangement of the original post, I have a few thoughts and comments.
A few days earlier, a federal agency had released figures showing the average number of motorcyclists killed in crashes had doubled in Louisiana in the first two years after the state repealed its mandatory helmet law.
Departing Gov. Mike Foster, a biker himself, signed Louisiana's repeal into law in August 1999, saying it represented a move toward "less government."
"Government ought not tell us what we can do to protect ourselves," he said. "We should have enough sense to protect ourselves."
And Americans by now SHOULD have enough sense not to use alcohol or drugs and then get behind the wheel, get in a barroom fight, etc. Yet over 50% of my trauma patients have ingested alcohol or other substances of abuse prior to their trauma. Let's not use arguments made up of straw-men that are perfect; it's not a perfect world.
A motorcyclist is now 26 times more likely to die in a crash than an automobile passenger, with 3,141 killed in 2001. Researchers are still exploring the causes of the sudden rise, and possible culprits include more motorcycles, bigger engines, older riders, increased alcohol consumption, and the repeal of helmet laws.
A report prepared for the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission and issued this year showed that in cases where helmet use was known, bikers not wearing helmets and dying in accidents outnumbered those who did, by 1.6 to 1, after the repeal.
"You can make numbers look like anything you want, say anything you want," said Travis "Blackie" Lawless, a St. James Parish motorcycle officer who wears a helmet on the job but does not when he is off-duty unless the weather is bad.
"Not wearing a helmet does not cause an accident," said Lawless, ABATE-Louisiana's vice president.
True, and completely pointless. This is not about preventing the crash, but about decreasing the risk of fatal or permanently disabling injury. Google "Haddon matrix".
"And just because you have a helmet on does not mean you're going to survive an accident."
No, it just dramatically increases the odds of survival in your favor, reduces the total cost of survivors' care, and reduces the loss of productive man-years to society. See above.
The Louisiana study said a possible key factor in that state is that most bikers in Louisiana apparently have not taken a safety course needed to get the license endorsement to operate a motorcycle. Bikers without a motorcycle endorsement account for 62 percent of the fatalities in Louisiana, the report said.
Lawless and Elkins, a retired chemical-plant worker, agreed that many bikers do not have the safety skills needed to ride motorcycles.
"If [a biker] doesn't know his limitations, he is setting himself up for failure," Lawless said.
No, he's setting himself up for permanent disability or death. If you own a gun, learn how to use it safely and responsibly. If you own a motorcycle, same deal.
Still, the study said, "there is convincing evidence that a decline in helmet use is the most important factor contributing to death and severe injury."
If you want to improve things, start with the areas where even small changes can have big effects. Or, "go where the money is"; speaking of which:
Under the Louisiana law, bikers 18 and older do not have to wear a helmet as long as they have proof of at least $10,000 in medical insurance coverage.
Jim Aiken, an emergency-room doctor at New Orleans' Charity Hospital, ... said the $10,000 in insurance coverage bikers are required to carry to ride helmetless would come nowhere near covering the cost of a lifetime of care, which often falls to the state.
$10,000 won't TOUCH the costs of even ACUTE hospitalization for a serious injury. With just the typical ICU costs of about $2000-3000/day, this will go in a flash.
The cost of the acute care alone falls heavily on the trauma centers. Depending upon the percentage of uninsured trauma patients, the overal reimbursement rates can range from as low as 15% up to maybe 40%. Try keeping any other venture open with those rates.
But to the bikers, getting out on the highway on a Harley unencumbered with a helmet is a freedom issue, one with risk but a matter of choice.
Freedom isn't free; privilege is bought by responsibility. If you can't cover the consequences of your choice, you are being irresponsible and creating a burden to the rest of society.
Make law, rescind law, make law, rescind law, make law, rescind law.
I'm so cornfused!
Oh look, goofy brother-in-law is gonna die too!!
Only under socialism are you burdened by other peoples irresponsibility.
Huh?
No games, no spin. Its a given that far more people die from head injuries sustained in automobile accidents than motorcycle accidents. Its also a given that motorcycle fatalities due to head injuries run roughly equal between helmeted versus non-helmeted riders. Thats the truth.
Why do I need to subsidize some rice burning rockets insurance coverage by participating in the same risk pool ?
Good question. The part that confuses me is why you think (if you do indeed think this way) mandatory helmet laws are going to solve this problem. It won't! The motorcycle fatality rate per 100 riders is actually slightly HIGHER in states that mandate helmet use. Far better to look at graduated licensing requirements like those used in Japan, or better DRIVER education.
Or seatbelts.
I wonder how many different ways there are to measure such a "statistic." I mean, at the very least, there is deaths-per-million-miles-traveled, deaths-per-million-passenger-miles-traveled, deaths-per-registered-vehicle, ...
Result of Havoc's having landed on his head first.
I happen to be an organ donor. I have, however, given orders that if I should happen to kick off, in a bike accident or otherwise, in a locale with a helmet law, no donation is to be made and my remains are to be cremated.
And since some unscrupulous physicians will *harvest* organs before notifying the family, claiming that the urgency of the situation required such immediate measures, I've also given orders that if such should occur, the funds from an insurance policy taken out for just such an instance should be used as a bounty for similarly harvesting the hands and eyes of any physician so involved in such a procedure, or anyone assisting.
After all, turn about is fair play, right?
In the event things are more routine, the insurance benefits get used for a party for my pals instead. That'd be a much happier ending, but you never can tell how things will turn out when crooked do-gooders are involved.
-archy-/-
They wouldn't say it if it wasn't true, right? Sort of like the "scrubbing bubbles" . . .
I'm looking for this report; I can't find it. I would love to learn how they arrived at these figures, because the numbers cited differ greatly from the nationwide study done not too long ago.
I agree...But these statistics aside...You cannot argue that people with serious injuries and little or no insurance, get medical care...no matter how expensive.
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