Helmet Laws

[Tindy]

Yesterday, a good friend of mine was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Gone, in a flash.

I talked to him less than 5 days ago, and now he's gone forever.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Not quite, anyway. A major factor in his death - or at least a major factor reported - was that he wasn't wearing a helmet. Sure, he might have been speeding, but the lack of a helmet is probably what did him in.

Now, where I'm from, there are no helmet laws for motorcyclists. If I'm not mistaken, there was a law at some point, but motorcyclists got all offended that they had no right to ride bare-headed, and it was repealed. You see tons of unhelmeted motorcyclists on the roads everyday, usually wearing American flag handkerchiefs instead.

It seems to me that they're of the opinion that because they're good drivers, they have nothing to worry about.

I'm worried about the other people on the road. Like in my friend's case - he hit a car, not because he ran a stop light or anything, but because the car couldn't see him and just... pulled out.

I don't know if he would have been saved had he been wearing a helmet. Maybe not. But maybe so. Regardless, the point of this post is to ask two very important questions --

Does your area/country have helmet laws?
Are you for or against helmet laws, and why?

 

[Venetia]

I'm sorry about your loss, Tindy . I may get a little matter-of-fact here about helmets ... I hope I don't offend you or anything.

Anyway, 9-1-1 dispatchers and EMTs around here call all helmet-less motorcyclists who get caught in accidents "Organ Donors".
Because in like 90% of the cases (not the actual statistic but I recall it being SHOCKINGLY HIGH), the head is ruined, but the body & organs are still perfectly fine.

I used to work in a law firm years ago, and when I processed photos of accident scenes, I had to see picture after picture of people with their heads destroyed, but almost perfectly intact bodies. It was nuts.

Here in Florida, curiously, our motorcycle helmet law only covers people up to age 20. After age 20, you're free to ride around helmet-less.
(This is in contrast to California's, where I grew up, where NO ONE is allowed to get on a motorcycle without a helmet.)

I'm torn on the issue.

On one hand, I feel that consenting adults should be free to do whatever stupid shit they feel like doing, so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

But on the other hand, their injuries and deaths on the road DO affect other people -- the drivers of cars who have to live with the lifelong guilt of taking a life (which may have never been taken, had they collided with a car instead). Not to mention, all the taxpayer money spent on medical care or coroner investigation.

When you're on a motorcycle, and you're hit from the front or back, chances are good that the first thing that will make contact with anything will be your head (either flying forward, or flying back).
If it only takes as little as ~16ft lbs of force to fracture a skull (depending on where it's struck), how well could it possibly hold up when meeting a car going even as little as 25mph?
Answer: Not well!

Now, the neck is also to blame in a lot of motorcyclists' deaths. Even if you ARE wearing a helmet, and you collide straight into a thing with your head, you may break/fracture your neck from the force. However, if the [helmeted] head is struck on its side, or if it slides, or even if the gods were on your side that day, there's a chance that you'd only walk out with whiplash or some nasty soreness.
Saying that you may as well skip wearing a helmet because your neck will break anyway is saying that you don't understand how to increase your odds.


I figure that, instead of trying to mandate a lot of extra laws, it'd be better to just increase awareness and education about the matter.
That's what I say about everything, but it works.
And the people who see all the PSAs and learn all the facts, but who still decide to go against them, are making an informed decision, so go ahead and let them.

 

[Mega Flare]

tinders here where i live you has to wear a helmet when you ride your motorcycle. Hell even when your on a bike your supose to were a helmets... but noo one inforces that law

 

[Ellie]

I don't know what our laws are, but I have never seen anybody on a motorbike or even a scooter without a helmet. Even sunday bikers and hell's angels.

 

[Glitchfinder]

I know Ven already mentioned California law on the subject, but I thought I might as well go into a bit more detail. First, California requires a special type of driver's license just to drive a motorcycle, which requires significantly more work to earn and keep. Second, anyone who is actually ON a motorcycle, no matter the circumstances, be it passenger or driver, even if it's just going a couple blocks in a neighborhood, is required to wear a motorcycle-grade helmet. In fact, related laws even extend to bicyclists, who are required to wear a helmet if under the age of 18, and are strongly recommended to wear a helmet even when over 18. (to the point where you can expect a bit of harassment from certain cops if you aren't wearing one)

Now, California is well known for being liberal in many respects, and automobile law is no exception. We were the first state in the country to ban cell phone use without hands-free measures while driving, and it looks as though we're well on our way to banning cell phones in the car, period. On top of that, California has some of the most aggressive enforcement of road-related law as well, to the point where the majority of the police-force is converted to traffic duty and setting up checkpoints on busy roads during certain well-known drinking holidays. (Be careful about how you drive on new years, for example) However, in many cases, California laws are intended to protect the rights and safety of the individual, over the choice to make harmful or deadly mistakes. That's sort of why California is such a hostile place to do business, is because it has the most liberal laws on the subject in the country, and they are heavily skewed toward the rights of employees over the rights of businesses.

However, I tend to disagree with what Ven has to say on public awareness campaigns. Even decades after seatbelts became required by law, and despite decades of often very graphic awareness campaigns, people still refuse to take the quarter second it takes to put one on, claiming it will kill them in a car accident. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest is human psychology. Specifically, people are far, far more likely to believe an anecdote, however false or unlikely, instead of overwhelming data that shows the opposite is true. The fact that in movies, the seatbelt always gets stuck and holds you in place until the car explodes, makes people believe that is far, far more common than it actually is. And, even if it DOES get stuck, there are these nifty little tools you can buy that help in automotive crashes. The tools have a blade to cut the seatbelt, a nail to pop the airbag, a hammer to break the window, a flashlight, and, to top it off, a bit of velcro to fasten it to your car, all in a single tool. That nullifies pretty much anything that would happen to trap you in a car after an accident, short of you blacking out and/or being physically immobilized by a collapsing car. However, time and again, people follow the anecdote instead of the evidence. That's how people in the US, even today, can believe that the sun orbits the earth (according to a gallup poll in '98, one in five Americans believe that), or that evolution is a myth (half an eye is actually quite useful, as certain deep-sea fish have proven), or one of a million other things that makes sense if you don't believe some story that says otherwise.

 

[Mega Flare]

First, California requires a special type of driver's license just to drive a motorcycle,

ummm not to burst your bubble im pretty sure everywere in North america you need a diffrent license to drive a motorcycle.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I extend my greatest condolences.

Personally, I have a hard time checking all the motorcyclists on the road, because they're very small, and they're always sneaking up on you from both sides. I have a specially hard time if they try to sneak from the left side. I check the mirror. There's nothing there. I'm about to make a left turn or switch lanes when suddenly a motorcyclist comes out of nowhere.

I propose they should not only wear helmets for their own safety, but they should also wear bright cloths and simply wait in the goddamn line with the other cars instead of sneaking up on you. I don't know how bad motorcyclists are in other countries, but here they're pretty reckless.

 

[Glitchfinder]

I extend my greatest condolences.

Personally, I have a hard time checking all the motorcyclists on the road, because they're very small, and they're always sneaking up on you from both sides. I have a specially hard time if they try to sneak from the left side. I check the mirror. There's nothing there. I'm about to make a left turn or switch lanes when suddenly a motorcyclist comes out of nowhere.

I propose they should not only wear helmets for their own safety, but they should also wear bright cloths and simply wait in the goddamn line with the other cars instead of sneaking up on you. I don't know how bad motorcyclists are in other countries, but here they're pretty reckless.

In heavy traffic here, you're bound to see a motorcyclist bypass it simply by driving between the cars if you watch long enough.

 

[Mega Flare]

I extend my greatest condolences.

Personally, I have a hard time checking all the motorcyclists on the road, because they're very small, and they're always sneaking up on you from both sides. I have a specially hard time if they try to sneak from the left side. I check the mirror. There's nothing there. I'm about to make a left turn or switch lanes when suddenly a motorcyclist comes out of nowhere.

I propose they should not only wear helmets for their own safety, but they should also wear bright cloths and simply wait in the goddamn line with the other cars instead of sneaking up on you. I don't know how bad motorcyclists are in other countries, but here they're pretty reckless.

In heavy traffic here, you're bound to see a motorcyclist bypass it simply by driving between the cars if you watch long enough.

and thats illegal :D

 

[Ellie]

Yes, I don't think they realise just how much room they take up, especially when they're scraping both cars with their knees.

 

[Glitchfinder]

Yes, I don't think they realise just how much room they take up, especially when they're scraping both cars with their knees.

That doesn't really happen here. Unlike Europe, with roads that were made for horses, pedestrians, and carts, most of America's roads were designed with cars in mind, so they tend to be wider. Motorcyclists can actually manage a decent speed heading between cars on the freeway in a traffic jam.

 

[Venetia]

Not in San Francisco. Dude when I went there there were motorcyclists and cyclists bobbing and weaving through traffic at breakneck speed, coming within inches of certain doom like every 5 seconds. it was so nerve wracking D: