Helmet Laws - Yes or No?
Today Interstate Motorcycles enters the blogesphere! Now, not only can you Jam with Slam in Rolla, MO on KKID 92.9 FM every Friday morning from 7:30 - 8:00 AM but you can jam with Slam ANYTIME on our very own Jammin with Slam Blog. Try not to let the excitement overwhelm you !
Let's kick it off with what I'm sure will be a controversial subject. HELMET LAWS! Should we have them in Missouri or not?
To begin with, the question is not are helmets a good idea while riding a motorcycle. Anyone with sense enough to twist a throttle real hard SHOULD be wise enough to realize that helmets WILL save your life if you are involved in an accident. That is (or at least should be) without dispute. BUT, the real question is should the legislature make laws requiring motorcyclists to be wise and do the right thing for their own good?
Personally I have been on both sides of the debate. I USED to believe that everyone should definately be wearing a helmet BUT that there should NOT be a law requiring it. After all, if someone wants to kill themself by a fatal head injury while riding, that should their choice, right ? Wrong! Now I have come to realize the error in that opinion. Unfortunately, many people in the United States do not have health care insurance (please no comments on the pros and cons of nationalized American health care !!). So what happens if some unlucky, uninsured and unwise rider whacks the living crap out of his / her unprotected head while cruising down his / her favorite boulevard and isn't killed but is severly injured ? Well I'll tell you what happens I have to pay the medical bills ! It is impossible, as well as illegal and immoral to allow some wretch with a brain injury to die on the pavement because they aren't insured. Every effort must be made and typically is made to save the individual's life.Not to mention what could be a lifetime of special care and rehab. That costs somebody money and guess who gets the bill ? Everyone !! That's who ! Whether the costs are passed along in ever increasing medical insurance premiums or by ever increasing tax payer entitlement costs, somehow those bills will get paid.That is where personal freedoms cross over into infringing on everyone else.
Well, what if an individual can demonstrate that they are insured ? Should they then be able to operate without a helmet? NO ! First of all who is going to be responsible for checking everyone's insurance card? More government red tape? Sounds like less freedom to me. Furthermore, what happens when an individual loses their insurance but continues operating without helmet and then has a mishap ? We end up with the same problem and everyone is paying again!
The only logical solution is mandatory helmet use. Well that's how I see it anyway. What do you think?
Let's kick it off with what I'm sure will be a controversial subject. HELMET LAWS! Should we have them in Missouri or not?
To begin with, the question is not are helmets a good idea while riding a motorcycle. Anyone with sense enough to twist a throttle real hard SHOULD be wise enough to realize that helmets WILL save your life if you are involved in an accident. That is (or at least should be) without dispute. BUT, the real question is should the legislature make laws requiring motorcyclists to be wise and do the right thing for their own good?
Personally I have been on both sides of the debate. I USED to believe that everyone should definately be wearing a helmet BUT that there should NOT be a law requiring it. After all, if someone wants to kill themself by a fatal head injury while riding, that should their choice, right ? Wrong! Now I have come to realize the error in that opinion. Unfortunately, many people in the United States do not have health care insurance (please no comments on the pros and cons of nationalized American health care !!). So what happens if some unlucky, uninsured and unwise rider whacks the living crap out of his / her unprotected head while cruising down his / her favorite boulevard and isn't killed but is severly injured ? Well I'll tell you what happens I have to pay the medical bills ! It is impossible, as well as illegal and immoral to allow some wretch with a brain injury to die on the pavement because they aren't insured. Every effort must be made and typically is made to save the individual's life.Not to mention what could be a lifetime of special care and rehab. That costs somebody money and guess who gets the bill ? Everyone !! That's who ! Whether the costs are passed along in ever increasing medical insurance premiums or by ever increasing tax payer entitlement costs, somehow those bills will get paid.That is where personal freedoms cross over into infringing on everyone else.
Well, what if an individual can demonstrate that they are insured ? Should they then be able to operate without a helmet? NO ! First of all who is going to be responsible for checking everyone's insurance card? More government red tape? Sounds like less freedom to me. Furthermore, what happens when an individual loses their insurance but continues operating without helmet and then has a mishap ? We end up with the same problem and everyone is paying again!
The only logical solution is mandatory helmet use. Well that's how I see it anyway. What do you think?
9 Comments:
I'm with you, Slam. Just because stupid is legal doesn't mean I want to pay for it....Hey, welcome to the blogosphere!
Mr. Slam;
Although I do believe that there is a lot of truth in what you are saying, the next step I believe that the insurance companies may take is whether or not the rider or riders were in fact wearing the helmet at the time of the accident. If not, they will not be covered for any of the injuries or personal property damage that they have recieved or caused due to the accident. I am not completely convinced that our government should have a say in what we as adults should or shouldn't do for our own safety. Like you said that is common sense, and if you don't have it then there has been a breakdown in your up-bringing or some other mental problem. I think that the seatbelt law falls in the same category. Although I do believe that seatbelt and carseat laws should be made and enforced for the young who cannot make those decisions for themselves. But after they reach a certain age, say 18 to 21, they will have either realized the importance of such devices or chose not to use them. But that should be thier choice. The same goes for the insurance companies with seatbelts, you have an accident, whether it was your fault or not and you were not wearing your seatbelt, the insurance company may elect not to pay or not to pay as much as they would if you had been wearing it. The same goes for motorcycle helmets. Personally, like you, I would never, ever ride a bike without one, nor would I ride with someone who didn't. I just don't believe that it should be up to the government to control this. The next thing you know the government will be telling us when and where we can do certain things within our own homes. It is my belief that this is still a somewhat free nation, and to me that means choices and the freedom to make them, however stupid they may seem to some of us. Thank you for listening, Biggen.
Anonymous
Good point ! However there is only ONE small flaw in your proposal. If the insurance companies do drop unwise souls for having a serious accident while not wearing a helmet the question still begs an answer, who pays the bills ? If your scenario plays out and the insurers excercise their rights not to cover, we are still not going to simply disgard human beings for being stupid in this country. Even if we wish we could it shall not happen. The general revenue will once again be called upon to cover expenses, both emergency expences as well as long term care.
You see, either way the government, you and I, are involved in this issue. Individual freedoms end at the door of collective abuse. Collective freedoms demand a certain amount of individual responsibility and where individuals reject their responsibility the collective must take measures to protect itself from the consequences. I still say the rational solution is requied helmet use.
Slam
Greetings Slam! Welcome to 1999 (grin).
There are so many facets to this discussion it's hard to know where to begin.
Like you once were, currently I am in the "always use one but don't tell me what to do" camp. Generally, I'm anti-helmet law, seat belt law, crumple zone and dash pad laws, airbag laws, personal recreational drug use laws, etc.
Since we don't have socialized medical care in this country, I think that so long as a persons actions don't endager the safety or heath of others they can all kill themselves however they like. I don't know if I really buy into the whole "the rest of us pay for it" eventually logic. Reason being, is that there are simply too few of us to make any noticeable impact. At least in North Amerika.
Motorcyclists represent a certain lunatic fringe of society, those that do not wear helmets even less, and those that would sustain a debilitating (vs fatal) head injury even fewer. How may motorcyclists (or should I say "2-wheel vehicle operators") suffer this type of injury each year? My guess would be that it is barely a measurable percentage when compared to other types of debilitating injury & illness in our society such as the many complications from obesity, smoking, sedentiary lifestyles, poverty-induced health complications, etc.
Another major factor involved is the lack of any meaningful helmet safety standard in the USA. DOT is a JOKE. A voluntary "honor system" with no arbitrary testing to speak of makes for a worthless safety "certification". If you're going to enforce a helmet law, the playing field should be even. Make everyone wear a decent full-face lid. A DOT sticker stuck on the back of some yamika-sized beanie does nothing in the way of protection.
Consistent ENFOREMENT of the helmet laws already on the books needs to be excercised as well. Again, not currently a level playing field - those on sub 50cc scooters & mopeds are EXEMPT from helmet AND insurance. I guess it hurts less to bonk your head on the concrete at 40mph on a scooter/moped than it does on a motorcycle, eh? Not to mention the lack of any knowledge of the law by LEO's! I've seen it personally - those legitimately riding 50cc's get pulled over for no helmets (and get cited!) and those on sidecars/trikes getting pulled over and telling the cop "you don't need one on a sidecar rig (or trike) and the cop LETTING THEM GO! And even those that simply openly disregard the helmet law and ride without - after all, if you do happen to get pulled over it's only a non-moving violation with a $25 fine. If you have a hlemet with you, they'll most likely just tell you to put it on and send you on your way. And don't tell me that a cop REALLY thinks that gold-colored Roman Centurion spike helmet is *real*, or the plastic German Nazi war helmet...
Just a few random thoughts from the peanut gallery... bacl to pretending to work...
Brian
SkidMarx
Skid BABY ! I love you man but your killin me! Trust me when I tell you, YOU are already paying the piper because some lame brain (pun intended) is functioning on a lower level and was injured on a motorcycle. Your health insurance costs more. Your bike insurance costs more. The Social Security system (again your money) gets hit harder.
I wholeheartedly agree that the current law is not perfect and enforcement is often somewhere between weak and non-existent. However ! It's better than no law at all. The data is clear and undeniable in states where helmet laws have been repealed, motorcycle fatalities AND debilitating injuries increase.
Slam
Slam!
Dude, I do NOT disagree with you that we do in fact, already pay for these boneheads. HOWEVER - and perhaps I was not clear - I feel that in the full scope of things, considering what we ALL PAY due to other debilitating disease, obesity, etc that any added health care, soc security, insurance costs, etc - that whatever costs the very few motorcyclists who recieve a debilitating head injury which would have been prevented by use of a helmet incurr, is a mere MOLECULE IN AN OCEAN.
Trust me, I believe in helmet use and always wear one wether I have to or not. I just think that this particular justification for them is weak. There are far better arguements for the use of not just any helmet, but even full-face helmets.
Your statement about the injury rates going up in the states with no helmets law is absolutely true, but I cry foul at stating this is nessesarily due to mere helmet safety factors. Sheer numbers of riders has a lot to do with it! As I'm sure you know, states with no helmet laws have many more registered motorcycles per capita than other states, so naturally they rates of accident and injury will go up as well.
If we were going to argue for the imposed use of any safety equipment on the grounds of medical costs, you'd better look to the morons out there with their $400 Arai lid on, but with wife beaters, shorts, and Berkenstocks on. It's THESE braniacs that are going to spared the initial -bonk_*lights out* - only to skid down the tarmac for a few hundred feet and then spend the next 3 months in an ICU ward getting cadaver ass-skin grafted onto them.
I'd wager any day that health care and insurance costs are far greater as whole from these types of injuries than head trauma which is typically simply fatal.
Take my own Breva accident as an example - a 75mph crash with not a scratch on my helmet, yet had I been a "typical" rider that day with jeans and a T-shirt the trauma I would have endured would have been both surviveable, AND unimaginable.
Yet with all this no one seems to be crying out for things that would make a real difference... scaled licensing scemes, required MSF style rider training, madatory protective CLOTHING use, better DRIVER education, etc. just the Helmets... and people get away with shorty and half-helmet jokes...
what's up with that?
Skid.
Skid
While you may not agree, and you are entitled to that opinion, you are nevertheless, incorrect. Your motorcycle premiums have a DIRECT connection to injuries and fatalities the stats are beyond a doubt. All those other places where we are economically impacted are also unquestionable AND if in those public funding areas we are saving a "Molecule in an ocean", I'll take it ! It's not the best solution BUT IT'S A START !!!
Aside from the fiscal impact of abolishing helmet laws there are other, and perhaps even better arguments in favor of the laws. Not the least of these is that helmet laws serve as an insulating barrior for other, far more intrusive "anti-motorcycle" legislation.
Many, many years ago during the presidency of Jimmy Carter and under the mis-guided direction of a federal beaurocrat named Joan (of arc) Claybrook, the National Traffic Highway and Safety Administration began investigating ways to make motorcycles either safer or illegal. She wasn't kidding ! The NTHSA began "experimenting" with motorcycle "prototypes" to accomplish their "safer" riding objectives and came up with some very wierd proposals. Among them were seat belts for bikes and rear steering two wheelers. Once again, THEY WERE NOT KIDDING !Your federal tax dollars at work. At the same time the Dept. of Transportation concluded that they would use state's federal highway funds as a lever to force the enactment of mandatory helmet use AND pro motorcycle groups rallied in FAVOR of the legislation as a way to deflect the NTHSA heat to simply ban bikes from the street all together.
I remember it well !
The same argument that deflected the Joan Claybrook attack then still applies today. Helmet laws are not the best solution, but they are a pretty damn good one, and if you think that legislation stinks ... it could get ALOT worse !
Slam
When I visit your establishment, I expect to see no smoking signs, as well as a sign saying sorry you can not try out a scooter or any other motorcycle unless you can show proof of medical insurance as well as proof that you have satisfactorily completed a certified motorcycle safety course.
Can I NOT wear my helmet if I wear a sign on my back that says "don't help me if I crash!"? What if.... I wreck my motorcycle and cut my arm off, or break my back, or I get paralyzed from the waist down, ect... You can not keep accidents from happening. If you seriously crash my motorcycle, I'm going to be seriously injured whether I'm wearing a helmet or not. I believe in the Freedoms of LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
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