"Helmet? I don't need no steenking helmet!"

[Scooby074]

As this case proves, riding a bike without a helmet is just stupid. Ive been riding bikes and ATV's since i was about 8. Wouldnt dream (other than on an ATV on my lawn) about driving without a helmet. Driving without leathers is dumb too, but at least its not fatal if your in an accident, no matter how much you wish it were when theyre wire brushing gravel out of your butt

Like seatbelts, helmets are proper protective wear and should be mandatory. The "freedom" argument doesnt hold water because, as we all should have learned in drivers ed, "driving is a privilege not a right". Plus we, as a society are stuck footing the bills for you expressing your "freedom" when the SHTF.

 

[beppington]

He died doing what he wanted to do, the way he wanted to do it - Just what America's all about (or used to be anyway).

 

[Duffster]

How do we really know that he would have lived if he wore a helmet? or not be a vegetable for the rest of his life? (Which I don't really consider any different from dead)

Another thing. Everybody seems to think that people that don't wear helmets costs us so much in health care. If not wearing a helmet is so deadly wouldn't it be cheaper? Dead people don't use up many hospital beds and resources.

 

[TripleR]

I wonder how many hobby farmers or non commercial tractor operators are injured or killed each year, how many equipment operators are killed/injured by not wearing seat belts, how many people are injured using chain saws because they did not wear proper protective gear. Should all these and more activities be outlawed or regulated just as some advocate on motorcycles.

Why does the government "allow" us to swim, ski, boat, rock climb, climb mountains, sky dive, para sail...

 

[Iowachild]

I salute the man. He lived what he believed. If people would only worry about themselves, not what others are doing....... It's not the amount of breaths you take , 'cause we all have a 100% certainty of dieing, period!:2cents:

 

[mmurphy]

How do we really know that he would have lived if he wore a helmet? or not be a vegetable for the rest of his life? (Which I don't really consider any different from dead)

Another thing. Everybody seems to think that people that don't wear helmets costs us so much in health care. If not wearing a helmet is so deadly wouldn't it be cheaper? Dead people don't use up many hospital beds and resources.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

And besides, why all the rules and regulations?

Here in Iowa they have not had a helmet law in many years. We probably do not have any higher death rate per capita then any where that has one.

For the record, I would not ride with out one.

 

[Scooby074]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

And besides, why all the rules and regulations?

Here in Iowa they have not had a helmet law in many years. We probably do not have any higher death rate per capita then any where that has one.

For the record, I would not ride with out one.

Umm .. not quite.

Theres a statistically significant increase in deaths among non-helmet wearers after the end of mandatory helmet laws,

NHTSA estimates that motorcy-
cle helmets reduce the likelihood
of a crash fatality by 37 percent.

A Crash Outcome Data Evalu-
ation System (CODES) study
found that motorcycle helmets
are 67 percent effective in pre-
venting brain injuries and that un
helmeted motorcyclists involved
in crashes were three times mo
likely to suffer brain injuries than
those wearing helmets.

Helmet use decreased following
the changes in helmet laws
in Arkansas and Texas. In the
first full year following repeal of
the law, fatalities in Arkansas
increased by 21 percent,
compared with the fatality rate
in the last full year under the
universal use law. In Texas,
operator fatalities increased by
31 percent compared with the
previous year when the universal
helmet law was in place.

The 1998 universal helmet law
repeal in Kentucky and the 1999
repeal in Louisiana produced
similar effects to Arkansas
and Texas. Observed helmet
use dropped from nearly full
compliance under the universal
law to about 50 percent without
the law. Motorcyclist fatalities
increased by over 50 percent
in Kentucky and over 100
percent in Louisiana. Injuries also
increased substantially in both
States (Louisiana 48 percent
and Kentucky 34 percent). The
rates of fatalities and injuries per
registered motorcycle increased
in both States following the
helmet law repeals


more info available here www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/.../MotorcycleHelmet2005.pdf
Common sense should tell most people that helmets save lives.

 

[Dargo]

Sorry, I don't mean to make light of someone's death, but have you seen the way they ride motorcycles in CA?! I think it's a form of population control. This 'lane splitting' gargabe there is so annoying. I get tired of stopping and having to offer assistance to morons who run between me and another car on an interstate running 70 mph. They clip both car mirrors and go down. Gee, what a surprise. Next time, I'm going to save myself the gore and just keep going if a semi runs over the moron who just removed himself from the human race. It really ticks me off when these motorcycle riders in CA commit suicide by way of innocent drivers.

I am not in CA all that much, but I've had 3 bikers hit me and the car beside me while running 70 mph in bumper to bumper traffic in the last 15 years. I have to think they intend to kill themselves. It doesn't even take a distracted driver to kill them. Someone can just get a gust of wind and move 3" over in their own lane and the morgue gets another motorcycle rider in CA. I thought they were bad in England, but nobody in the world tries to kill themselves on motorcycles more than CA riders do. I really am convinced that CA allowing 'lane splitting' (where a motorcycle passes you in your own lane while you are in it at interstate speeds) is their way of removing the lowest common denominator from their gene pool. I see people swerve over 2 or 3 lanes while texting or eating all the time. Knowing that fact and also knowing it only takes 3" to 6" to remove one of these motorcycle riders from the living in CA makes me seriously wonder if half of the deaths on bikes there aren't suicides. Nobody with any sense would cut between two semi trucks that are, at most, 3' apart running side by side an interstate and expect to live.

 

[Iowachild]

I salute the man. He lived what he believed. If people would only worry about themselves, not what others are doing....... It's not the amount of breaths you take , 'cause we all have a 100% certainty of dieing, period!:2cents:

Is there anyone on here who would rather LIVE FREE or have a nanny state telling what move to make every day?

 

[shane]

If not wearing a helmet is so deadly wouldn't it be cheaper? Dead people don't use up many hospital beds and resources.

You are right, the dead don't. But, the family they often leave behind sure do.