Kansas City Star Monday editorial
In one of its more baffling acts of the 2009 session, the Missouri legislature passed a bill repealing the state’s helmet law for motorcycle riders.
Transportation Department Director Pete Rahn is right in saying the move makes no sense and will cost lives.
Gov. Jay Nixon is reviewing the measure. He should veto it.
In a recent poll financed by the state Department of Transportation and conducted by Abacus Associates of Hatfield, Mass., 84 percent of respondents said they backed Missouri’s current law, which requires helmets for motorcyclists and passengers.
If that statute is repealed, wearing of helmets would be optional on state roads but still required on interstates. Riders under 21 would still have to wear helmets on all roads.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 42 lives were saved in Missouri because existing law boosted helmet use. In states that repealed helmet laws, use of helmets fell from 99 percent to 50 percent and motorcycle deaths rose.
Looking at current trends, Rahn says it’s an especially bad time for repeal.
Traffic fatalities as a whole have dropped in Missouri, but since 2004 motorcycle deaths have nearly doubled. Last year, they rose by 13 percent to 107. This is no time to repeal the state’s helmet law.
Delicious
Digg
if this becomes law, people
if this becomes law, people will see long term care for head injuries that will surely occur. Helmet is important just like with car covers in vehicles!
too much freedom??? Wow Land
too much freedom???
Wow
Land of the Free* and home of the brave...
*Some freedoms shall be unlimited and unestricted such as abortion, freedom of speech by liberal groups and indiviuals and unions. All other freedoms are at the determination of the almightly, imperial government.
Sign a waiver?
Are you people total idiots? Do the illegal aliens who come in our country WITH OUT permission sign a damn waiver that I don't have to pay for their medical treatment when they are out on a job that was taken away from a US Citizen? Or is that just my tax dollars at work? I work 2 damn jobs, pay may taxes EVERY year and you and the government are going to tell me that I have to wear a helment when I decide to go out and unwind after a LONG hard day at work? Where is MY Freedom? The damn illegal aliens have more rights than I do, and how about people having babies who don't have jobs or health insurance? I guess thats ok to support people who WONT support themselves.
For your information I have my own health insurance and I have insurance on my bike. I don't ask for hand outs and wouldn't take one anyway. And instead of being concerned about me and my fellow motorcycle friends, start worring about the REAL problems in this country and leave me the hell alone.
And while your at it, all you people who drive around and do everything except drive. HANG UP THE DAMN CELL PHONE, PUT AWAY THE MAKE UP, THE NEWS PAPER, THE IPOD AND ALL THE OTHER THINGS, that take your attention away from your #1 responsibility of driving and DRIVE. If more people would hang up and drive the roads whould be a much safer place and maybe just maybe so many motorcycles wouldn't get hit by you dumb asses. And the death rate would go down.
Love it, just love it.
As long as these yahoos sign a wavier when they get their liscence relieveing any other person of any liability or responsibility for anything other than scraping their sorry corpses off the pavement and into a body bag and pay an up front fee for said scraping, and they are over 21, let them do it. If they want to splat their brains on the pavement - OK by me. If someone want's to kill themselves bad enough they will figure out a way, no matter how hard others try to stop them. Just don't expect taxpayers or insurance companies to get involved by having to provide funding for anything.
Take the Next Step
Freedom is nice as long as everybody else doesn't end up paying for it. What happens to uninsured helmetless riders who have an accident? Will society allow treatment to be denied at the Emergency Room because they can't pay? If people had any guts, maybe that would be for the best, but that isn't going to happen. Instead, either the hospital will suck up the cost and pass it on to everyone else, or Medicaid (WELFARE) will step in to save the day? Either way, we all pay.
Better solution would be to require ALL riders to carry medical payments coverage or a health insurance as a condition to ride. Right now, only liability is required, and that only pays for other people if the rider/driver is at fault. As a matter of fact, they should require proof of med payments insurance or health insurance for all auto and truck drivers as well.
Let insurance companies decide.
Insurance companies should simply add a proviso to their policies so that coverage is null and void if the rider is killed or injured while operating a motorcycle without wearing a helmet. This removes the government from the equation and economic conciderations become the sole criteria. This protects the rest of us from carrying the extra costs for motorcycle accidents. Otherwise, I could not possibly care less what they do.
I did make such a written suggestion to my state representatives and actually got a response from one of them.
I agree completely (of course)
And while we're at it, let's ban matches - so many fires are started by kids. The list is endless, but once Nanny government gets going, they will never stop.
--> Global warming is the new eugenics <--
You'd have to be nuts to get on a motorcycle without a helmet
But should it be a law? You would hope common sense takes over at some point.
Helmets??? Ban the MOTORCYCLES!!!
The editorial board here at the Star is wringing its hands over the helmet law - hey, you're missing the forest for the trees - why not just ban motorcycles completely?
I'm not kidding - according to the figures below, motorcycles are far, far deadlier than cars, unsurprisingly - so even if some lives are saved, you're still allowing people far too much freedom in choosing a conveyance that greatly increases their chances of dying on the road - how can you be so blind as to have missed this?
It's hilarious you're so worried about whether a helmet is worn or not - kind of like campaigning to not allow smoking when an airliner is crashing.
http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/motorcycle/
Excerpts:
Motorcyclists were 35 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a crash per vehicle mile traveled in 2006 and eight times more likely to be injured, according to NHTSA.
The fatality rate per registered vehicle for motorcyclists in 2007 was 6 times the fatality rate for passenger car occupants, according to NHTSA.
--> Global warming is the new eugenics <--
Nobody lives forever
And quite frankly, I don't see any huge advantage to living a long life in a world full of nosy busybodies who love nothing more than meddling in other people's affairs. When my time comes, I won't miss most of you a bit. Until then, leave me the hell alone.
And no, I don't ride a motorcycle. In my opinion, the damn things are deathtraps, helmet or no. But if you want to kill yourself on one, be my guest. You're a grown-up, aren't you?