Helmet Law ?

[Learpilot]

Georgia is proposing to do away with the mandatory wearing of helmets for those riders that are over 21 and have been riding for two years with medical insurance. Our border states of South Carolina and Florida have no helmet law now.

What do you guys think ?

[Dave]

Georgia is proposing to do away with the mandatory wearing of helmets for those riders that are over 21 and have been riding for two years with medical insurance. Our border states of South Carolina and Florida have no helmet law now.

What do you guys think ?

You ever seen my pics after the bike crash :?:  :?: Ill wear a helmet and ive ridden quite a bit in other states with out one.  After you go down u realize why they are needed.. Here in Michigan they were trying to do the same kind of law only you had to pay like 50.00 a year to ride with out one? Ill keep my money...
Dave  

[Bugpac]

I agree, i wasnt on a road bike, but took a spill on a atv very hard, laid me up for 3 months, no helmet and i may have been dead...

[tomslik]

fortunatly, colorado still gives you the freedom of choice and SOMETIMES i choose not to wear one, other times i kinda like having one on.
the choice will be yours....and i won't fault you either way.

[purplepickup]

I've been in two bad accidents....one where I hit a slippery spot and smacked a bridge and another where a car hit me at 45mph while I was sitting at a stop light.  Both times my helmet was smashed but my head survived.  The girl riding on the back in the second accident broke her neck and is still paralyzed.  Some say that the helmet might have caused that but I don't think so.  She flew through the air and hit another car in the intersection with her head.  I almost always wear a helmet.

I have a couple of half helmets that I wear sometimes but I've got tinnitus (ringing ears) real bad and I can't take the wind in my ears so my main helmet  is an open face full helmet.

A lot of you guys have probably seen this but if you look  here you'll see that helmets don't protect against stupidity.

*Edit* Learpilot, I forgot to give my opinion of the law that makes it mandatory to wear a helmet.  Despite my opinion that helmets save lives, I don't think it's the government's role to decide whether or not I should wear one.

[jaybee]

I only went down on the street once.  I was headed toward a right angle turn to the right where two residential streets met, minding my own business.  Visibility around the corner wasn't much because of the house on the corner lot.  A car coming from the other direction cut within 3' from the curb on my side of the street, causing me to alter my line pretty dramatically to fit through the available space.  I didn't hit the car but was unable to keep the wheels under me and make the corner.  Pretty bad road rash up my right arm but no serious injuries.  I was wearing a helmet that night but up until that time didn't always.  I never got on a bike without a helmet afterward.

[phat46]

I'll never undestand why it takes a law to make some people wear a helmet, but maybe Darwins law will prevail  

[tomslik]

I'll never undestand why it takes a law to make some people wear a helmet, but maybe Darwins law will prevail  

maybe not, ever see a t bucket uhh, t-boned?

gonna make THOSE guys wear a helmet?

a helmet IS NOT a sure lifesaver!
neither is a seat belt or airbags....

it STILL should be up to the rider/passenger....

[CQQL33]

I agree with "purplepickup" I resent the government passing laws that restrict my freedom.   They have no business taking away personal freedom.   If you check the statistics, of all the people killed in automobile accidents most of them died from head injuries.......now our government would not pass a law to make people riding in cars wear helmets because their wives would be upset with them ruining their hair due...................what da ya think    

It should be the individuals choice on wearing or not wearing a helmet.   99 percent of the time I have mine on but not because of any laws......it is my choice.

[WZ JUNK]

The government can mandate that you wear a seat belt when you drive a car and a new car must have an air bag.  That seems to be okay with everyone, but you say there is something wrong with the government telling us that we must wear a helmet when we ride a motorcycle.  To me it seems the risk of injury from not wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle is much greater than driving a car without a seatbelt or driving one without airbags.  Riding a motorcyle without a good helmet may feel good, but it is not prudent.  I think it should be a federal law that in all states you must wear a helmet if you ride any kind or size of motorcycle on or off road.  I do not like the government telling us what we can or can not do anymore than most of you, but I think they should be consistent.  I know that while helmets are not failsafe, they can make a big difference and they significantly reduce the chance of a serious head injury.

John

[CQQL33]

I believe it is GREAT that all cars have seat belts and air bags.   A very great safety item indeed.    I resent that there is a law that says I will get a ticket and a fine for NOT electing to wear this seat belt !!!!   More and more with the pretence of safety and security the government is taking away more of my (our) freedoms   .........that is what I object to.    I wear my helmet when I ride most all of the time.  (and I wear my seat belt in my car also).........

[phat46]

I'll never undestand why it takes a law to make some people wear a helmet, but maybe Darwins law will prevail  

maybe not, ever see a t bucket uhh, t-boned?

gonna make THOSE guys wear a helmet?

a helmet IS NOT a sure lifesaver!
neither is a seat belt or airbags....

it STILL should be up to the rider/passenger....

Exactly! It shouldn't HAVE to be a law, it's simple common sense. A helmet is not a SURE  lifesaver, but it IS a lifesaver. Years ago i had a bike rider argue with me that a helmet won't help you in a crash; I told hime that i could prove that a helmet can help, I simply told him to go run into a wall head first without a helmet on and then do it again, if he could, with a helmet on and then tell me which time he was less injured. I have been riding motorcycles since the late 60's and I feel very vunerable just moving a bike across the yard without a helmet, I can't even imagine riding at speed without one, a vision of a smashed pumkin comes to mind. Seems like professional racers and riders think it's a good idea to wear a helmet, rules aside, I'm sure they wouldn't want to be going at a high rate of speed without as much protection as possible, and neither would I. Aagin, it comes down to common sense, it really shouldn't have to be a law.[/u]

[Bib_Overalls]

Florida does have a motorcycle helmet law.  If you don't have $10,000 in medical insurance you are required to wear a helmet while operating a motorcycle.  Minors are also required to wear helmets.

This seems reasonable to me.  Although I think the dollar amount of the policy should be higher.  A trip to the ER with your smarts hanging out is going to cost a lot more than that.

And I wounder how many riders actually have the coverage.  

The State does have an interest here, as with seat belts and air bags.  They are proven to prevent or mitigate injuries in accidents, they don't cost much, and they are not all that intrusive.  

Insurance and helmet laws would be unnecessary if simply we let uninsured accident victims bleed out on the side of the road.  That is not going to happen, no one wants that.  But when they transport and hospitalize an accident victim someone has to pay.  If the victim can not then the State most likely will.  If the victim can not return to work there will be disability payments as well. And in the end we all wind up paying.  

On the other hand, if we did not have motorcycles we would not have heart transplants (or at least as many).

[Rayvyn]

There is a letter going around to the governors of the 23 states where there are no helmet laws, from the Secretary of Transportation in Washington, DC, informing the govenors that if they don't look into the possibility of repealing the no helmet laws and making them mandatory again, then federally supplied money to those states for motorcycle safety learning and awareness classes will be lowered or cut off. This was prompted by a letter from NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg to those same govenors and taken up by the Federal DOT.

Whether you support the no helmet law or not, this type of action was restricted in the year 1999 by passage of a federal law stating that the Federal Government cannot and should not interfere in state mandated decisions where they have no control. In other words, there is no federally issued drivers license for every national citizen. They are issued by the individual states, with priveleges granted by the states to operate a motor vehicle as long as the state determined laws for operating a vehicle were met.
The Feds tried to intervene in the motorcycle end of things, like they did when they cut off state funding to those states not abiding by the 55 mph speed limit that was set by congress.
This Federal law prohibits the interference of the Feds in state matters. It's also mandated in the constitution. But because a few lawyers twisted the facts around to make it appear as if the death toll is morbidly rising, the Feds overreact. What they didn't make public was the fact that motorcycle registrations have quadrupled in the helmetless states, while in the mandatory helmet states, the registrations have dropped. But in these states the percentage of deaths to helmetted drivers has stayed the same, even though the numbers are down. But the Feds are using these lower numbers to try and sway the people into repealing the no helmet laws by getting them worked up with faulty information.


Comparing insurance analyses in the state of Florida from the year 2001 to 2007, the percentage of motorcycle driver fatalities for those WITHOUT helmets was lower than those wearing helmets. Deaths have gone up from the 252 in the year 2000, to 833 in the year 2007. But motorcycle registration in Florida has risen from approx. 150,000 in the year 2000, to over 550,000 in 2007.
Also, factor in that Florida's percentage is actually lower than most northern states that still have helmet laws. Most northern states have limited riding periods during a calendar year, where as in Florida the bikes are driven all year long. Take the fatality rates for the northern states and stretch them out statistically over a 12 month period and you'll find that their rates are higher than Florida.

The percentage of motorctcle deaths can be broken down 2 ways.
Under 21 - 47%  (Fewer riders)
Over 21 - 53%  (75% of the registered bikers)

So if helmets are required for drivers under 21, and they make up only 25% of the registered bikers in the state, why do they have a higher death rate?

Over 21 - Minimum $10,000 additional medical coverage required for driving without a helmet.
Of the fatalities in the over 21 crowd, there were more deaths suffered by drivers wearing helmets (320) than by drivers without (304).
Also, the percentage of trauma class injuries was higher for drivers with helmets than without.
Of medical data collected from 1999 to 2006, there were more paralyzing injuries suffered by hemeted riders and passengers than without.

In all cases of head and neck wounds broken down by accidents listing no injuries, possible injuries, minor injuries, non-incapacitating injuries, incapacitating injuries and fatal injuries, the rates for nearly every injury class were higher for bikers wearing helmets than without.

In automobile accidents, head and neck inuries account for almost 48% of the claims in Florida, and that's cars having seatbelts and airbags. For bikers WITH helmets -37%. For bikers WITHOUT - 32%.
Passengers WITH helmets - 31%.  Passengers WITHOUT helmets - 27%.

There has been a steady rise in the number of neck and head injuries for riders with helmets, because a 4 pound helmet going 50 miles per hour has the force of a 200 lb. object at that speed when it suddenly changes direction or comes to an abrupt stop. This is like trying to turn your head to the side while a 200 lb weight is pushing against it. To get the head to turn, something has to give.
This is the very reason why the IRL, Formula 1, Champ, ARCA, LeMans, Indy Pro and all phases of NASCAR have mandated the HANS devices in all their cars; because of helmet force trauma and whiplash.

Imagine being in a car, seatbelts on, going 60 miles an hour and you hit a wall or another vehicle and come to an immediate stop. Imagine the forward strain that's being placed on your neck and vertebrae at the time of impact.
Now imagine the same scenario while wearing a 4 lb. helmet.  Even more strain.
Now you'll know how Dale Earnhardt felt when he hit the wall and died. There was no HANS device then.

I am merely throwing this info out there for all to see. It is facts based on findings by insurance companies and the states themselves.
I support freedom of choice for those over 21 provided they have the additional medical coverage. I agree with Florida in making all riders under 21 wear a helmet.
I have riden both with and without a helmet. I have dumped a bike on 2 occasions years ago, but helmets did not come into play in either one.
Do we make bicyclists over the age of 18 wear a helmet? After all, they are operating on a public street. Do we make helmets mandatory for moped drivers and passengers? Why not golf cart users? They are off road instruments the same as ATV's...

There are thousands of Harley owners where I live. More than you can imagine out riding on a sunny day. Alot of Goldwing, Star and Victory folks as well. Some wear helmets, some don't. I don't question either one, because I believe it's an individuals right to choose.

I do not believe the federal government should have a say in it at all. Find an end to the war, fix the roads, jump start the economy, kick out the illegals and get drugs off the streets, then maybe we'll talk. But until then, "EFF" OFF. They screw with my head enough; I don't need them messin' with the helmets.

Ya'll can argue it farther. That's my 2c.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I don't tell you to wear a helmet, don't ask me to take mine off..

I've flopped around on the asphalt a couple of times.  it ain't no fun.