Put brakes on efforts to repeal biker helmet laws

USA Today ^ | 7/1/2003

[presidio9]

Archie McGregor, 43, was killed Sunday near Custer, Mont., when his motorcycle veered off the road, vaulted a ditch and rolled. He wasn't wearing a safety helmet. Jennifer Smith, 22, died the previous week, when she was thrown from her motorcycle and slammed into a pole on a country road in North Jay, Maine. She wasn't wearing a helmet, either. Both deaths occurred in states that no longer require adults on motorcycles to wear helmets. Nearly universal in the 1970s, mandatory helmet laws are being repealed by states across the USA, in spite of numerous findings that wearing a helmet significantly reduces the risk of death and serious injury. Only 20 states still require helmets on adults, and Pennsylvania's legislature voted Tuesday to repeal its law.

[Bikers4Bush]

Good for you but that doesn't mean that you have a right to force me to wear a helmet.

For every instance of a helmet saving someone there's an instance of it costing someone else theirs, we just don't read about those stories.

"And don't give me no flack about it", I knew a guy whose helmet caught in an accident and broke his neck. Had he NOT been wearing it he probably would have lived.

[Joe Driscoll]

New Hampshire!

[martin_fierro]

	FReeper Motorcycle Hooligan
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[Gorjus]

Pardox said: Peoples freedoms can end up costing everybody else.

Yes, they certainly can. However, there are ways, as you mentioned, to avoid that. And it's interesting that the examples given (as well as the bulk of the statistical data) deal with fatalities (no added medical costs), while the rationale used to require helmets laws is reflected in the posting by 'rontorr' which indicates his life was saved 'more than once' by a helmet though he still has a stiff neck (suggesting added medical costs).

The issue can be anchored to the best definition of 'freedom' I've ever found. Freedom means you have the right to be wrong.

It may indeed be stupid to ride a motorcycle without a helmet (I always wore one when I had a cycle). But a line must be drawn somewhere. If we are not allowed to be 'wrong' - as the government defines 'right' and 'wrong' - on this issue, then where is the line to be drawn that limits where we do 'allow' citizens to make their own mistakes?

The essence of helmet laws, and seatbelt laws, and gun control laws against law-abiding citizens, and on and on is the expectation that citizens are guilty until proven innocent (by the government) and must be restricted because they are 'too likely' to do something 'wrong' if given a free choice.

No thanks.

[babyface00]

When people die in motorcycle crashes it costs us nothing.

There is a cost (insurance, emergency room, etc.). However, the solution shouldn't be that the government mandates the behavior of free adults, the solution should be forcing those who engage in risky behavior to pay the cost of that risk.

One solution might be that insurance companies would refuse any payouts on claims if the individual was not wearing a helmet or seatbelt. That would wake a lot of people up, and it wouldn't cost the rest of us anything.

[nightdriver]

".....and don't give me no flack about it, I am one of many whose life was saved by the helmet,...."

Not the issue.

Helmets MAY be a good idea (I wear one) but it's a TERRIBLE law.

At North Slope, they require hardhats and safety glasses in addition to the usual belting for passengers in vehicles because, heavens to betsy, a rock just MIGHT come through a window and hit someone.

There is no end to this until every mode of life is regulated to a standstill.

[spunkets]

"and car drivers are themselves drowning in mandatory safety features"

Bikers complain about the ninny nannies. Cagers comply with a dumb smile.

[KarlInOhio]

If anything helmets raise healthcare costs, because they leave us with more traumatic spinal injury survivors.

BS! Are some people killed without helmets who would be cripples if they did wear a helmet? Yes. But far more would be cripples without a helmet who are just stumbling around like Troy Aikman for a couple of days after having a crash with a helmet.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have any problems with people having to sign something when they get their motorcycle license/endorsement that says if they don't have insurance to cover it and they are injured while not wearing a helmet, the state will have no financial responsibility for them.

[gtech]

New Hampshire!

I should have known, Live Free or Die. It's a drastic change from FL weather though. :o)

[presidio9]

There is a cost (insurance, emergency room, etc.). However, the solution shouldn't be that the government mandates the behavior of free adults, the solution should be forcing those who engage in risky behavior to pay the cost of that risk.

This is a nonsensical dispute. If helemts are suddenly mandated everywhere, do you think insurance premiums are suddenly going to come down?

[Riley]

Folks might be interested to know that a study was done on motorcycle accidents, injuries and deaths. It was called, appropriately enough, the Hurt Report.

Here are some of the conclusions that they came to.
http://motorcyclecourse.cyberus.ca/new/hurtrep.shtml

[presidio9]

Where are you getting your "facts" from.

[docmcb]

Just think of how many accidents would be prevented, and how many lives we'd save, if we forbade ALL bike riding! And why stop there?!? What we need is a nationawide 30 mph speed limit, strictly enforced. That'd save 10oo's of lives.

[jeremiah]

The insurance industry, and the govts intervention in the medical industry, is the reason it is so expensive to get medical care. Since it is the fault of the same institutions that health care is so high priced, why should I care to take care of my own needs? No one else is, that includes those paying outrageous insurance rates, and following helmet and seat belt laws.

[JPJones]

Letting bikers be free to choose how they ride carries a cost borne by everyone.

A statement often parroted, but anathema to everything the USA stands for...

[MP5SD]

Statistics Blah, Blah, Blah, - Motorcycle sales are up by 54% since 1997, so gee; more motorcycle accidents.

How many people's lives would have been saved from fire if they had been wearing an asbestos suit? I don't advocate that we all be required to wear one.

[tahiti]

"Higher motorcycle fatality rates drive up insurance premiums, disability payments and unemployment compensation."

fatality noun, a DEATH resulting from an accident or a disaster.

Would someone like to explain to me how dead people "...drive up insurance premiums, disability payments and unemployment compensation?"

How can you be disabled or unemployed when you are dead?

[FateAmenableToChange]

Higher motorcycle fatality rates drive up insurance premiums, disability payments and unemployment compensation

A better solution to command and control action by government is to change those government regulation of insurance premiums, disability programs and unemployment compensation so that those programs don't subsidize riskier choices. Let individuals decide how much they really want a particular activity.

[beelzepug]

By the way, I always wear my helmet and seatbelt no matter what state I'm riding or driving in. My choice - my family still likes having me around.

[presidio9]

Some lives will undoubtedly be saved if all airline passengers are required to wear parachutes at all times.