Oh the irony... helmet laws

[Valhallaz]

I wonder how many bike wrecks involving a no-helmet cranial injury accrue actuarially excessive medical costs?

In other words, how many end up on someone else's financial plate?

The same could be said of auto accidents. Most auto accident fatalities involve serious head trauma.

So if it's about saving lives, why not a helmet law in a car? Simple. Most don't want to be inconvenienced. So they pick on motorcycles, because for the most part, it's just an inconvenience to someone else.

[j2k4]

The same could be said of auto accidents. Most auto accident fatalities involve serious head trauma.

So if it's about saving lives, why not a helmet law in a car? Simple. Most don't want to be inconvenienced. So they pick on motorcycles, because for the most part, it's just an inconvenience to someone else.

Not intending to pick on motorcyclists, but you got there quicker than I anticipated.

Wanted to point it up as an example of how we assign weight to certain things...at one end of the range of helmet-wearing motorcyclists, we may have someone who would go so far as to wear one in a car, as well; the likelihood, however is that your average Joseph will regard the car itself as the 'helmet', but I think we can also assume that wearing a helmet in the car would cut the mortality rate another wee bit, can't we?

Choices, choices...

Not to leap too far OT, it strikes me that were AlGore to pick up on this cause, he could do more good than by afflicting us further with his global-warming/climate-change scams, eh?

[NickS VR4]

In my opinion, making a motorcyclist wear a helmet is not much different than making an automobile driver wear a seat-belt. I grew up on dirtbikes and quads, and I will always wear at minimum a helmet. I also always wore a chest protector.

As for wearing a helmet in a car? I don't think you would get much benefit from that. With seat-belts and airbags, and the loss of peripheral vision and hearing... it just wouldn't be practical.

[beepbeep]

I read this article earlier ....so much irony.....

[green-lantern]

It should be a choice to wear a helmet, not a law.

I agree but...

I wonder how many bike wrecks involving a no-helmet cranial injury accrue actuarially excessive medical costs?

In other words, how many end up on someone else's financial plate?

This!

The rider should knowing give up any liabilities toward another driver/rider for any cranial injuries received in an accident if not wearing a helmet.

[IPD]

i love helmets so much, i'm wearing two of them right now. one for each head.

[Runner up]

^Lol^ (Also, Akuma avatar=win)


I can't say that I believe wearing a helmet should be a law, just like I can't say I believe wearing a seatbelt should be a law. But I will say that I think it's incredibly stupid not to. But hey, to each his own. A biker not wearing a helmet causes me no harm, so who am I to say what he can and cannot do?

[IPD]

technically it's not helmet vs. no helmet.

it's open casket vs. closed casket.

[UTRacerX9]

The rider should knowing give up any liabilities toward another driver/rider for any cranial injuries received in an accident if not wearing a helmet.

TX has a pretty good system I think. A helmet is not required here if you have full coverage insurance on the bike with at least 15-25k of medical insurance. Or, if you are over the age of 21 and have taken a state approved motorcycle safety course.

FL I don't believe had any laws regarding helmet use, but almost all of the sport bike riders there wear helmets, and frown upon sport riders who don't. A lot of groups won't let you ride with them unless you are wearing a helmet either.

[AgentOblivious]

This is why my dad calls motorcycles two-wheeled organ donation machines. A helmet should be a must, especially given that they're not mandating motorcycle airbags, and that most of the deaths are from head traumas, leaving the other organs fairly intact (with the exception of maybe the spleen). Yes, the rider is the one taking the risk, which would be great if we all lived on our own little self-sufficient islands, but while the rider may die in real life, he's not the one who has to clean up the mess, rush him or her to the hospital, deal with the funeral, burial, or give the lifelong care that comes with surviving such a crash with severe brain trauma.

I don't care if a rider has experience or has taken a safety course, that doesn't account for all the drivers who tend to be idiots towards bikers, cyclists, and pedestrians. Being in the right doesn't matter much when you're dead, and is it really too much to take 10 seconds to strap on a helmet before you ride, so that it makes the paramedic's, doctor's and mortician's life a little less busy?