I know a lot of paramedics. Without exception, they are FOR helmet laws. Probably because they are the ones that have to hose your brain matter off the asphalt.
Actually they are pretty much anti-motorcycles entirely.
Anyway, I’m for seat belt laws AND helmet laws for children. If you want to be stupid, fine, but society has the obligation to protect your children from your bad decisions.
BEGIN RANT
Fine, fine fine, I’ve worked with people with acquired brain injuries, and one thing that has done is made me wear a helmit while cycling. If you want to spend the rest of your life needing help to go to the bathroom and eat, go ahead. I just don’t want to pay for it directly or indirectly. The other option, death, is worse for you than for us. After the funeral is over we never have to give you another thought. Look at the bright side, when you wear a helmit you won’t have worry abour running into a bee at 60 mph.
END RANT
Keith
since no one else has mentioned it…
does anyone else get a chuckle from seeing new hampshire bikers with no hemlmets and a “live free or die” motto on their plate?
-ellis
Since when does “It’s a good idea” == “It should be a law”?
I see WAY too many people making that instant connection. “I’m for helmet laws, because I’ve seen too many die from brain injuries.”
Hey, I’ve seen people ruin their lives by quitting school to become rock stars. Perhaps we should make that illegal? I’ve seen people hurt themselves badly extreme skiing. Should that be illegal? How about those people that live paycheck to paycheck, and then have to go on welfare if they lose their jobs? That costs all of us. We should pass a law saying that everyone has to save 10% of their salary. After all, it’s a good idea, so why not make it law?
Where does it end? You’re welcome to try to inform me that what I’m doing is stupid. You’re not welcome to stick a gun to my head and make me stop.
In Delaware (where I live) the law is that you must have a helmet on the motorcycle. 'course they don’t care if you put it on your head or not. I like this law for two reasons: 1. It encourages without dictating. Afterall, if you hafta bring your lid anyway might as well put it on your noggin. 2. It ensures that a helmet is availible for someone that gets picked up on a bike. The driver of the bike might not care, but at least his/her passenger can wear one.
For all you “pro law” types. If the state is to pass a law requiring a piece of saftey gear, then they will first have to define what it is. What’s to stop me from riding my scoot wearing a plastic spaghetti strainer bungeed to my skull and calling it a helmet?
Once the state gets into the business of approving helmets the manufacturers of the approved brands will get a windfall because all riders are required by law to purchase their products.
Further by requiring them by law, the state is implying that they are safe. A rider who suffers a broken neck that he/she may not have suffered without an additional five lbs strapped to his head can and undoubtoubly will sue. Also riders who suffer head injuries while wearing a state approved helmet will most likely sure the state for not requiring “safer” models.
Keep the choice where it belongs, let those who ride decide. Oh yea and fuck those non riding anti bike medical types. Murder cycles indeed, I want to smack them every time I hear one smirking that remark out of their pompous asses.
Trust me, it IS defined. Why? Because some bozo out there (e.g. Clinton) will feign ignorance to what the word “helmet” means.
“Helmet?? I was using the 15th century Moroccan interpretation of the word.”
I don’t think there should be laws against riding a bike without a helmet, unless you are under 18.
But after being hit by a car while on a bike doing between 55-60 mph, I would urge people to wear one !
I slid down the freeway with Lion on top of me.
He said he could see pieces of the helmet peeling off.
That could have been my skull and my brain.
I refuse to ride anymore ! Helmet or no.
Ayesha - Lioness
There are two solutions to every problem : the wrong one, and mine
(Thomas A. Edison)
Odieman, are you willing to pay for the injuries suffered below the chin, even though the helmet was being worn? My nephew was killed in August. He wore his helmet and died of internal injuries to the chest. Helmet wasn’t much help there, was it? He may have lived if he wasn’t wearing the brain box. He may have heard or seen the car that hit him. Who knows? The fact is, he wore a helmet because he WANTED to, in Illinois…not because someone else thought it might be a "good idea.
My quick two cents.
When seat belt laws were first in place, I never wore mine. I went for a ride with a friend who INSISTED I put it on. (he was afraid of getting a ticket) I did, and a few miles later we were creamed by a tractor trailer. Without that belt (and the law) I would not be here today. Personal lesson learned? Seat belt laws are good. I was not smart enough at age 17 to know I wasn’t invincible.
FF to this summer. My husband was hit by a truck (on his bike), catapulted about 20 feet in the air and landed on the road. Cracked the helmet, saved the skull. Yeah! My husband WAS all against helmet laws and bitched about wearing one (Until he saw the crack running through the one he had on). He thought he was invincible up until that point, and I for one am glad someone thought for him and forced him to wear that helmet, or I would have buried the love of my life and been a young widow.
In short, don’t get all psycho pissy on me, you have every right to your opinion. I personally think (based on first hand experience) that MANY (not all) people need laws to protect themselved FROM themselves until they reach that state of mind that reminds them that thier death DOES matter to many people.
If my husbands brains had ended up splattered all over Route 26, you can bet it would have had a signifigant impact on more then just him. Many lives would have been devastated.
Zette
Before you start flaming me, please realize that these opinions are mine only- I’m not saying you should share them. I’m saying that my husband and I both benefitted from these laws, not that you personally would.
Work a little bit harder on improving your
low self esteem, you stupid freak!
Click here for some GOOD news for a change Zettecity
Zette, I was in an accident in high school in which I was in the passenger seat of a Chevette. My friend, driving, hit an ice slick during the winter, we slammed into a snowbank in the median strip, flipped over it, and rolled four or five times before coming to a stop upside down, the car about 1/2 its original height. We were not wearing seatbelts, so we rolled with the car. We alked away, uninjured.
Had we been wearing them, I’m sure we might have been killed or at least suffered massive head trauma. All it proves is that each accident is different, and YMMV.
Phil,
you are absolutely correct. As I said in my post these were MY experiences and why I like the laws. That’s what the OP asked for and that’s what I gave.
Zette
Zette: You don’t get it. Since you favor laws to make this stuff mandatory, you are clearly saying that I DON’T have a right to an opinion.
I don’t think a lot of you ‘pro-no-helmet’ writers quite get it. The Helmet Laws, as far as I can recall, were passed after much study concerning the amount, degree and general costs of motorcycle accidents as well as the condition of the survivors.
To state it simply, a motorcyclist has about 100 times more potential to suffer a fatal or debilitating head injury without wearing a helmet than with one. Trying to make car accidents fit into this whole thing is not relevant because a person in a car has a crash cage about them.
The study did not go into the general mangling of assorted limbs as they get caught in the crashed bike and skid across the sandpaper-like surface of the road. That’s why roll bars were designed for bikes, but the BIKERS consider them sissy bars and often don’t use them, preferring to have their legs ground down to the bone if they crash and then hitting up the general public for about $100,000 in reconstructive surgery and later for disability.
But, hey man, if you want to risk what few brains you have in your head, by all means, don’t wear a helmet. Don’t expect me to have to happily pay for your medical expenses either if you crash and spill them across the dirt because you wanted your hair to blow free and wild in the slipstream.
I’ve never been comfortable with some of the reasons people give for not wearing seat belts, not wearing helmets, etc… It usually falls back on a line similar to “had he/she not been using that safety device, they would have survived”. There’s a lot of room for speculation on that type of reasoning, since we can only assume the exact set of circumstances which cause accidents.
I don’t think that there is a 100% effective safety device in existence. What it boils down to is this: under the most-foreseen types of accidents, will this device reduce or eliminate the chances of injury or death? As far as helmets and seatbelts go, I’d have to say yes. I know, there will be the odd circumstance where a belt or a helmet may make the injury worse, but I think the odds for survival in general are better if you use available protective devices.
Someone else brought a point I had missed–helmets with visors provide protection against bugs and other airborn debris. Getting hit in the face by a hard shell bug, a pebble, or a bird (it happens!) can be a major distraction for a rider. Windshields help, but sometimes stuff can get past them.
I still think that the choice should ultimately depend on the riders, but I think they should weigh their decisions wisely.
Just to clarify terms…
Anomaly22, what you are referring to are not ‘sissy bars’, but ‘engine guards’, as the manufacturer likes to call them, or ‘crash bars’. They usually look like half a hoop sticking out each side of the bike just in front of the engine. My dad always reminds me to make sure I get them whenever I get a new bike. When my bike went down, they probably saved me at least $1000 in paint, chrome, metal work, etc., by keeping the shiny stuff off of the pavement. I STRONGLY recommend them.
‘Sissy bars’ are bars with backrests that the passenger can lean against (or you can tie your luggage to, etc.). Not much help if you bite it (as I learned, just more chrome and leather to replace if you do).
Why in the hell does everyone keep saying that the ‘general public’ has to pay for motorcycle accidents? Is this a British message board? I’m going to go cancel my insurance and you guys need to reimburse me for some of my medical bills. “But when the insurance company has to pay 6 digits to mend you up, my insurance rates go up!” I have yet to see any facts to back this up. In the past couple of months, a couple of guys that I ride with had some NASTY wrecks, and we raised the money for their medical bills with raffles, poker runs, donations, etc. Don’t falsly believe that when a biker has a wreck, he gets dumped on the doorstep of ‘the general public’. Bikers have family, friends, insurance (hopefully), co-workers. When I see a car wreck, I don’t think, “Damn those four-wheelers! There goes my insurance rates again!”
BTW, if you’re in a car, please use a little extra caution when you see a bike close by, and try to keep an eye out for them. If everyone would do that, that would prevent A LOT of accidents.
Conversely, if you’re on a bike, don’t act like the rules of the road don’t apply to you, like riding up the berm or in between lanes of traffic. If you do, I will do my best to force you off the road and kill you.
You had better hope that you kill me, and that I’m alone, and that no gets your plate number, because if you attempt to carry out your threat, I, and/or my buddies, will find you and beat you until you’re almost dead, you psycho bastard. I’m speaking for many bikers out there. Bikers are a very tight-knit group, and if some pussy in a car fucks with one of us, whether the person is on a sport bike or a regular rice burner or a HOG, that pussy fucks with all of us.
I’m sure that now you’re going to go kick your dog and drive off looking for a biker – I hope you find me.
PLDennison, what a pleasant approach to people who don’t share your beliefs. That attitude will get you a good ass-kickin’ in most circles. What the hell is wrong with you, anyway? I was just reading your posts in the Athiest thread, and it sounded like you had a pretty sound moral compass. BZZZZZZ! WRONG! Gotta hate those bikers! Gotta kill 'em! Christ! It’s enough to make me puke.
Hey, Jackoff #1 and Jackoff #2, are you able to distinguish between the concepts “all bikers” and “bikers who feel the rules of the road don’t apply to them”? Apparently not. Why don’t y’all go take some remedial reading courses and get back to me, huh? That’s the second time in one thread you’ve done it, GirlFace, and it really does little to support your arguments.
If some Easy Rider wannabe starts sidling up the yellow line, in between cars, like driving laws are for other people and his shit don’t stink, or whipping up the berm like it has a sign reading “Motorcycle Lane,” you bet I’m gonna make his life tough.