Posted on 08/08/2005 11:35:42 AM PDT by Crackingham
There is always at least one week in January when it's just too cold to ride down here.
Thanks for the stats. :-)
I don't have any answers for this and the numbers really don't bother me. Basically because I am admittedly ignorant of the study.
But the fact remains is that we have elected leaders playing mom and dad and that is not their place.
All government in this country needs to be slashed in half at the very least and these laws would be a good start nation wide.
Why the heck is it against the law to wear a helmet?
ROFLMAO !!
OKAY. I want every one of you people living down there in taxpayer subsidized, reconstituted, reconstructed, paid for in part by my insurance dollar, Hurricane alley to tell me how terrible it is that your tax dollars might go to support some poor slob cut off by an unlicensed illegal alien in a stolen SUV.
Unless I am mistaken, everyone else is supposed to have vehicle insurance. I noticed the article (typically) made no mention of if or how the bills got paid, only that the neurosurgeons (who shell out ridiculous gobs of dough each year for malpractice insurance)charged more.
Two thirds of fatal Motor cycle accidents are the result of some one in a 4 wheeled vehicle failing to yield the right of way.
Nothing is going to keep you from serious injury in a 60 mph full-on head impact. Nothing.
Spare me the tax money rant, you are likely to spend far more on bottled water in a year and the same would be available to you if you sustained an injury to your unhelmeted head, whether in a vehicle rollover or water skiing.
Until people start driving like something other than idiots, the only defense someone on a motorcycle has is skill, maneuverability, and the ability to discern a threat in time to use the first two. For some a helmet makes no difference, for others (like me) it does.
If insurance mimima are not covering the cost of medical care and you want to save your tax money, speak to the legislature.
Oh, wait, drinking and driving are already illegal… nevermind.
Why are we not trying to save these people by requiring helmets in automobiles?
They ignore the fact that motorcycle and scooter sales are way, way up. For the first time there were a million motorcycles sold last year so of course the number of fatalities will be up with the number of bikers.
What do you mean by too cold....?
We have a week (or 40) when its too cold here in Alaska too...
A. You can use 'taxpayers will end up funding it' arguement to the point of having the most facist society you could imagine.
B. What makes you think taxpayers end up funding anything anyway? We don't have Canada Care last time I checked. Sure, there is some public aid here or there, but that's hardly justification for taking away an adult's right to chose what is or is not best for them.
If anything, it'll cut down on the cost of any public aid. If you go flying off a motorcycle without a helmet, you'll probably be badly injured still and need lots of care. If you don't have one, you'll probably have your brains all over the pavement, and thus need only a coffin.
Nation-wide, the preponderance of motorcycle fatalities involve [a] no helmet and [b] alchohol. That said, the chief inherent risks to motorcyclists are cagers [automobile drivers] turning left in front of or pulling out into the path of the motorcyclist. The prudent rider automatically and consciously scopes out every intersection, driveway, lane merge, etc., long before he gets there. If he doesn't, he will pay the price. Helmets? I wear an Arai Signet GT - kind of warm in the weather we've been having out here but I won't even ride down the driveway without it. It's a shame you don't like motorcycles - you are living in and close by some of the primo bike country on God's green earth.
I know of the Dr. who is a source for these fake statistics. He is a crackpot.
He is also pissed that he was not the one to get control of the money from the motocycle license specialty plate. The bikers got the state to produce a motocycle plate with red, white and blue with the money going to motocycle issues in the state.
The real meat of the stats are in the end. This is an blatent yellow journalism article. The deaths would have gone up regardless because most of the new riders either have no motocycle license (meaning no training) or have only been riding for 3 months.
This is the miami herald, they HATE motorcycles. The herald always puts out motorcycle bashing stories.
Do them mention that most of the new riders use full face helmets which INCREASE the chance of death over 15 mph? (helmets are only rated to 15mph per FMVSS 218)
Do they discuss the fact that helmets are often knocked off the riders head from the impact?
Instead we have sensationalism instead of education.
They don't mention either that riding without a helmet requires you to have insurance?
Cold is anything below 73F :-)
But too cold to ride cold is somewhere under 40F. Remember, leather chaps are crotchless and I, for one, ride sitting up eating bugs! (Big juicy crunchy ones) :-)
New riders tends to mean more accidents, until they are either killed off or become old riders. (This takes about a year.) There are old riders and bold riders but no old bold riders.
Don't know about you, but even if I do wear helmets most of the time, I want the freedom to let the wind blow through my (non-existent) hair!
Hmmmm. Sounds like my argument against allowing people to live in Florida, where they have those expensive hurricanes several times a year.
***I hate helmet laws, ***
Here is a wreck I saw about 12 years ago.
The car in front of me slowed for a legal left turn.
Behind me a young man got in a hurry and whipped out to go around me at a high rate of speed and slammed into the side of the car turning.
The back of his motorcycle went up in the air and he hit the car door with his face.
He then hit the pavement and spun around several times.
His skull was shattered like an egg shell and the helmet he had on kept it together. I got to pump his chest till the medics got there.
Scoop and run.
He lived.
Every time I see a motorcyclist without a helmet I think of that young man. and I began to notice the high number of newspaper reports of people killed in motorcycle wrecks just in our area.
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