Motorcycle fatalities with/out helmets?

[dmccarty]

Since this thread has gone a little off track I'll continue with that course. I've always felt the argument that a loud pipe offers a level of safey a bunch of hooey. There's nothing safe about a driver of a car being startled by an extremely loud foreign sound, the first thing that is done is eyes go off the road to scan the environment to figure out where and what is causing the noise, at the same time it's reflex to get the foot on the brake just in case the noise is the beginniong of a catastrophic failure of your vehicle. As said, a driver being startled erodes a level of safety not add to it.

Bing Bing Bing you get a prize.

I was driving home one day with one of my kids who was about 6-7 at the time and sleeping in a car seat on the drivers side of the truck. A motorcycle with loud pipes was behind us. I was doing the speed limit of 55 which was not fast enough for him. He passed us, down shifted right beside me and scared the scat out of my daughter. He had loud pipes which amplified the noise.

He was lucky I did not kill him. A loud noise like that can easily startle a driver and cause them to pull left as the look to see what is happening. At which point he would have died of I had pulled left. We were driving over a causeway over a lake. If he was lucky he would have ping ponged between the guard rails. More likey he would have gone OVER the guard rails and landed on rip rap which may or may not have kept him from going into the lake. A helmet would have been irrelevant.

He was lucky I don't startle easy. But he scared my kids which made me a bit mad. We were both lucky that the light a mile ahead was green when he got there and red when I did. We were going to have a chat about his pipes.

That a..... has turned my kid against motorcycles. Kiddo HATES them to this day and says so to me from time to time when we see one.

Later,
Dan

 

[SensibleNick]

My stance on the "loud pipes" question is about half way... riden gently* my XR is far from offensive, and it's as quiet as a mouse when compared to some V-twin harley-esque thing with no silencers at all...

However, out of date data or not, the fact that people fail to see motorbikes counts even for pedestrians. I've seen people step out infront nice and quiet Kwaks and so on... Saw some poor sod go over the bars tryign to avoid a mum who pushed her baby's stroller out infront of him.

So... Ear-splitting roar? No... absoloutly no thanks. A good thumping presence? Yup. :thumbsup:


*riding an XR650 gently... pfft

 

[BruceWard]

My brother in law died in a motorcycle accident without a helmet on while Arkansas had a helmet law. He either did not have it on or strapped on. A Ford Ranger turned in front of him. His front wheel buried under the bed of the truck and he was catapulted. He hit his head on a telephone pole. He died of bleeding in his brain in the hospital a few hours later. Had he had the helmet on when he hit the pole it might have saved his life.

I also saw an accident between a motorcycle and a minivan. The motorcyclist was thrown from the motorcycle and slid across the ground. His path went over a traffic island which had an old sign post cut off near ground level. He did not have a helmet on and part of his skull was stuck to the cut off sign post after the accident. I stayed with him and tried to keep him calm until the ambulance arrived. I understand that he survived.

Personally I would wear a helmet. But I do not feel that we need to legislate helmet laws to prevent evolution.

 

[SensibleNick]

But I do not feel that we need to legislate helmet laws to prevent evolution.

Darwin's waiting room


I assume you're familiar with the Darwin Awards?

 

[MossRoad]

I am not in favor of the loud roar of a V twin either.... I am more fond of the high pitched wailing banshee scream of a 2 stroke twin or triple with a set of expansion chambers at 12K RPM. :shocked:

But seriously, you can rarely hear a motorcycle coming if you are in a car. You can hear them going away, but not so much coming.

 

[VTFireftr]

I have been riding for almost 20 years. I live in a state that requires me to wear a helmet, so I do. When I am not required to wear a helmet, I usually don't. That's my CHOICE. Smoking has been proven to cause cancer, and kill people, but people still have a CHOICE to smoke or not. What's wrong with this picture?

I have also been a firefighter/EMT for over 25 years (**** I'm getting old). I have "worked" several accidents involving motorcycles and ATV's. Sometimes the helmet helped, sometimes it didn't. Hasn't changed my opinion a bit. I have also "worked" several tractor accidents. I still bought one and use it. Go figure!

As per loud pipes, I'm in favor of loud pipes, but not open pipes. And those stinking rice burners that rev like chain saws really piss me off.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox.

If you do ride, helmet, or not, just ride safely and enjoy.

Marc

 

[Jaylegger]

And those stinking rice burners that rev like chain saws really piss me off.

Marc

At least you didn't refer to them as gooks. That sensitivity training is paying off in spades.

 

[Dargo]

I have been riding for almost 20 years. I live in a state that requires me to wear a helmet, so I do. When I am not required to wear a helmet, I usually don't. That's my CHOICE. Smoking has been proven to cause cancer, and kill people, but people still have a CHOICE to smoke or not. What's wrong with this picture?

I have also been a firefighter/EMT for over 25 years (**** I'm getting old). I have "worked" several accidents involving motorcycles and ATV's. Sometimes the helmet helped, sometimes it didn't. Hasn't changed my opinion a bit. I have also "worked" several tractor accidents. I still bought one and use it. Go figure!

As per loud pipes, I'm in favor of loud pipes, but not open pipes. And those stinking rice burners that rev like chain saws really piss me off.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox.

If you do ride, helmet, or not, just ride safely and enjoy.

Marc

Yup, and helmets are so trivial and the documented proof that they save lives is so small that no sanctioned auto or motorcycle race requires their use. I suppose the same thing goes for seat belts. I've heard many drunk guys claim that so-in-so "was throwed from their car an theyd of been kilt if they were wearin ther seebelt". Based on that, I think F1, IndyCar and NASCAR is repealing the use of seat belts in their races.

Dad gum it! I took the baffles out of my Harley and after I started it I begun pushing it through the yard thinking I had my old Briggs lawn mower missing it's muffler and in bad need of a tune up. I didn't get any mowing accomplished with my Harley that way. Duh! Oh snap! Now I know why. I had my helmet on!! What was I thinking?? Having loud pipes is equal to having a kid next door who has a $10,000 sound system in his car, heavy on the subs, and likes to listen to loud rap all day long. I feel both should be arrested and sentenced to a year in prison while forced to listen to Clay Aiken 24/7.

Some things just make good common sense. We are at risk of being killed any given day. I fail to see why I need to increase that risk because I have a wife and kids who depend on me. Sometimes I feel like I don't give a rat's poo if I died. Then I think of my family and I know why I do everything I can to be as safe as reasonably possible every day. That's why my top employee stopped smoking (I still can't believe she did - I thought sure you're going to stop smoking) after having smoked a pack or two every day for 26 years. Next month she'll be 2 years since she's had a single smoke. She said she quit for her two sons and husband, not for her. I find it hard to fault her thought process.

Oh yeah, I've ridden motorcycles for over 40 years now and raced them for 7 years. I can't really say I recommend the racing part.

 

[DK35vince]

As per loud pipes, I'm in favor of loud pipes, but not open pipes. And those stinking rice burners that rev like chain saws really piss me off.

They are in no way any more annoying than all the noisy cruisers running up and down the road where you have to shut the windows in the house in order to hear the TV.

 

[Yankee]

Naturally I can't speak directly of any individual on this thread, but it's rather comical (given the context) to consider that, as a group, people who operate tractors are among the worst violaters of safety standards.

Seat belts? Hearing protection? PTO covers? FEL procedures? Set the brakes when stopped? NAH! Then, of course, there's working between the implement and tractor (with PTO running, no less), leaving the ROPS down, cutting it, drilling it, etc., passengers, riding in buckets and on implements, exceeding equipment limitations, improper transport tiedown, defeating safeties ...

and on and on and on.

But HELMETS - ya, THOSE are a BIG problem!

(and yes, I am guilty of some of the above myself)

Off my soapbox now.