Rising deaths stir new debate over helmet laws

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 12/01/03 | Joseph A. Gambardello

[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the average number of motorcyclists killed in crashes had doubled in Louisiana in the first two years after the state repealed its mandatory helmet law.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.

[archy]

My head was one of the first things on my body to make contact with the road. If there'd been a helmet law in Indiana at the time of my wreck - the likely hood is I would be dead as a result of law.

Concur. I've had two fairly serious accidents on a bike in just under 40 years of riding, one being a one-in-a-million fluke unlikely ever to happen again, but one in which my helmet, worn because it was warm headgear durng a cold November afternoon's ride, probably saved me from serious injury. There was no helmet law requiring a helmet, and my riding pal with me was happier with a sock cap; he would have been creamed.

On the other, I hit a car broadside being driven by a drunk through a stoplight and had the choice of going down in front of his rear wheel, or standing up and being thrown off the bike and over the car's trunk deck. Helmetless, I stood up, flew over the back of his car, did a perfect somersault and landed on my feet like I'd practiced the trick a thousand times. A helmet would not have made any difference so far as impact was concerned, since there was none, but the chances of it catching as I went through my own plexiglass windshield are unpleasant to consider, and upsetting my balance in the slightest would likely have spoiled my best-ever trick.

Helmets? Rarely. I wear one when I go parachuting, and I've seen too many parachute jumpers injured by their own helmets. Neither do I care for having a wasp or hornet getting trapped in a helmet at highway speeds, as happened to one fellow rider who had planned on riding to the Illinois state fair with me that year. He didn't make it.

-archy-/-

[Old Professer]

46 deaths, 73 injuries cost Louisiana $102 million? That would be $857,142 each; highly questionable numbers.

[Revelation 911]

Its a given that far more people die from head injuries sustained in automobile accidents than motorcycle accidents

sources please ? and is that cumulatively or proportionately ?

[Revelation 911]

Neither do I care for having a wasp or hornet getting trapped in a helmet at highway speeds, as happened to one fellow rider who had planned on riding to the Illinois state fair with me that year. He didn't make it.

happened to me as well - twice - the first time, my neck spasmed in reaction and I found myself staring at my feet at 60mph, unable to raise my head - and the next was a hornet that nailed me several times in the face and on top of my nuggin

[RightWhale]

Are you talking about the full helmet that limits both seeing and hearing? Don't they allow the kind that protects the brainpan yet leaves ears and eyes open?

[Old Professer]

This is how it works:

First it is assumed that you will make a million every year and give half to the government, so by dying the government lost that half a mil;

second, it is assumed that a 2 pound lump of plastic is going to resist upwards of 10,000 FPS at impact and you would walk away without a scratch and go back to paying that half a mil you owe;

third, the doctors could be making at least $5,000 per hour in the ER on real people instead of working on your sorry ass;

fourth, you're too ignorant to appreciate a professional bullshitter when you see one.

[Old Professer]

Trauma removes more citizens from productive life, either temporarily or permanently, than any other disease.

See what I mean?

[Havoc]

Hard time understanding english or is there something in the way I phrased it that you aren't understanding.

[RWG]

You're supposed to wear motorcycle helmets, not football helmets. Saying helmets cause accidents is like saying birthdays cause pregnancies.

[BraveMan]

No, I cannot argue with that. It would be silly to even try. Moreover, as a civilized society we have a moral obligation to tend to the "donors and idiots", IMHO.

To paint this exclusively as a motorcyclist problem, as this article does, is dishonest at best.

Many states proof of insurance. Wisconsin requires proof of financial responsibility in leiu of proof of insurance. All well and good. However, just as the myriad of gun control laws do not physically prevent criminals from carrying and using them, the proof of financial responsibility requirement does not stop the newbie squid from hopping on his 188mph Yamaphobahy rocket and taking him/herself out in spectacular fashion.

Uninsured, unlicensed riders are way overrepresented in motorcycle accidents; over 65% of all motorcycle accidents are attributed to uninsured, unlicensed riders with less than a year of experience. Why should I be required to wear a helmet all the time because of these goofs?

Mandatory helmet laws are a poor substitute for rider and driver education.

[Semper]

If I'd been wearing a helmet, I'd be dead or paralyzed.

Interesting post. For those who don't understand, let them try to do gymnastics wearing a helmet.

[WorldWatcher1]

If I'd been wearing a helmet, I'd be dead or paralyzed.

Why? Nothing in your story leads to that conclusion.

[biblewonk]

I assume it's simple deaths per million accidents and not a measure of likelyhood or frequence of accidents.

[BraveMan]

Thanks for clearing that up. I feel better now (I think) . . .

[newgeezer]

deaths per million accidents

That would definitely help the helmet nazis make their point!

[Semper]

Saying helmets cause accidents is like saying birthdays cause pregnancies.

Some of the birthday parties I have experienced would certainly lead to that pregnancy conclusion.

BTW, helmets CAN cause accidents as described on this thread where bees have gotten into the helmet and stung the rider. I have had that happen - stung on the temple while riding on a winding country road, fortunately the result was not catastrophic.

No matter what the actual statistics are, the government should not be telling us we have to wear helmets.

[archy]

Don't you know, helmets are dangerous and cause broken necks? No? Actually, I don't know, maybe those shorty helmets are prone to having an edge catch and providing extra leverage for the pavement to break your neck or whatever. I do know that with full-face helmet like the one I wear the design pretty much precludes the edge of the helmet catching on the pavement. And the helmet's shell has a lower coefficient of friction on pavement than does hair and skin. You're looking at the wronmg parts of the helmets. Look at the back where it rides across the neck. If it's straight across, as many are, both cheapies and top-end full-jet models both, it's a Guillotine waiting to snap your spine at the neck and leave you drooling and paralyzed in a wheelchair at best, slowly suffoicating as your lungs no longer receive operational instructions from the brain at worst. Or maybe that's not worse.

Look for one with as much of a high relieved arch over the neck while still offering the back of the skull and the medulla and occipital process as much protection as possible.

Whatever you get, the better the interior padding and the lighter that weight on your already overstressed neck and cervical structure is, the better off you'll be. Look at the following, and figure out which of the following you'd want to be wearing when you hit the ground at 40MPH-plus. As Ive done 388 times from airplanes, and a half-dozen times off motorbikes.

[archy]

You're supposed to wear motorcycle helmets, not football helmets. Saying helmets cause accidents is like saying birthdays cause pregnancies.

Many football helmets, if not most, are actually better for surviving an impact than many now available motorcycle helmets. After all, they've been tested with guaranteed impacts dozens of times over a season, and resulting lawsuits have refined the dangerous ones off the field. The same is true of protective headgear for many other sports as well, whereas motorcycle riders are told to throw their old skidlid away if it's been down even once.

And guess how football helmets are cut across the rear now.

[WorldWatcher1]

archy, your info helped me understand Havoc's point, which I think was that a helmet could have snapped his neck (if it was poorly designed).

[archy]

Saying helmets cause accidents is like saying birthdays cause pregnancies.

What's being said is that some helmet designs cause injuries even in the most minor accidents, or exacerbate them in more serious ones.

And mandatory helmet laws increase the use of such helmets and mandate their wear, when the wearers would actually be safer without them.

-archy-/-