if you clowns don't want to wear a helmet, that is your choice. what should be required of anyone that does not wear a helmet is proof of hospitalization insurance and long term care insurance...at least $100k worth. that way the general public will not have to pay your bills for your stupidity. no helmet--no insurance--no license.

 

What about educating the automobile population? More people die in auto accidents than on motorcycles yet they aren't forced to wear a helmet. What about creating laws that really do protect the motorcycle community such as "kill a biker, go to jail". Why is it ok for the car-driving public to keep killing motorcyclists with no reprecussions? Why is it ok that "the little old lady just turned left in front of my buddy, and I watched him die doing what he loved"? Why is it ok that a dump truck driver high on crack can kill 8 bikers in arizona? I think most of them had helmets on and in that situation it didn't matter. They were run over by a dump truck.

If you're going to die on a motorcycle, wearing a helmet or not isn't going to save your life. It is not the be all-end all answer. Yes, it MAY be one part of the process of surviving a wreck.

Don't you folks think you can die on a motorcycle even if you're wearing a helmet because your body sustains such damage in a wreck that it cannot continue to operate.

What's next? The government forces us to wear sportbike-style full leather riding outfits? Makes wearing shorts and open-toed sandals illegal while riding (I bet we'd hear a HUGE uproar on this forum if that ever happened). I've seen people riding in short and sandals and a light t-shirt while wearing a full face helmet.

What about making motorcycles illegal to operate? What then? Don't think it couldn't happen. It can.

Some people here seem to think it's ok for governments to dictate how we live our lives. I am not one of those people. I don't like being told that I have to wear a seatbelt and I don't like being told I have to wear a helmet. What I do like is having the choice. It should be up to me.

Just like some of us choose to own a firearm and some of us don't.

Some of us choose to drive American and some of us don't.

Some of us choose to vote Democratic. Some of us don't.

Some of us choose to wear a helmet and some of us don't (when given the choice).

 

Ohio has an under 18 helmet law. I would never ride my kids on a bike without a helmet. But it is probably not a bad idea since some parents buy their kids high speed sport bikes whe they are 16. But once they are 18 they can go in the service and be issued an automatic weapon so WTF who needs to tell them to wear a helmet??

 

If you are on drugs or texting or something, then the penalty should be severe. But if you choose to not protect yourself, and a minor accident turns into a life ending head injury, that should be taken into consideration when deciding what to charge the driver with.

This is one of the illogical arguments that I dislike most. It is illogical because we know that many accidents are not fatal due to helmet use, and the above argument ignores this.

I'm in favor of that. You can't drive a car in NY barefoot. Because it is a danger to other people if you can't control your car. Should be the same with a motorcycle. Do you not think that control of the bike is hampered by wearing sandals?

How would you like to be driving a car and come around a blind turn to find a motorcycle sitting there. The rider is wearing sandals and slips on the foot controls and can't get out of the way in time. You hit the brakes, and the car skids into the bike at about 5 mph when you hit them. The rider has no helmet on. They fall to the ground under the bike and hit their head. They die.

You are at fault, I believe, no question. You rear ended the motorcycle, even though the turn was a blind turn and you did not know that there was stopped traffic beyond it. But if the rider was wearing a helmet, you would have gotten a ticket and a fine and an insurance headache. Now you can be on the hook for vehicular manslaughter, and even if not, you have that death on your conscience.

Because some dumbass thinks it's not cool to wear a helmet...

I think that is more likely to happen if motorcyclists keep fighting helmet laws and drivers become more and more nervous about killing one.

It IS up to you... as long as you aren't on the PUBLIC roads.

You don't have the rights you think you do on the public roadways. You can't, for instance, ride around without a license and the proper safety requirements on your bike or car. In some states you have to have a yearly safety inspection.

the argument about infringement of rights is alive and well, but unfortunately, it is just dead wrong. You don't even have the right to ride a motorcycle on the public roadways, or operate any motor vehicle on the public roadways. But the "my rights are taken away" argument never seems to die no matter how many times this gets pointed out.

 

For much of American history, the right to travel included the right to travel by the vehicle of one's choice, and courts occasionally struck down regional regulations that required licenses or government permission to travel on public roadways. With the advent of the automobile, however, courts began upholding laws and regulations requiring licenses to operate vehicles on roadways. Constitutional scholar Roger Roots has referred to the forgotten right to travel without license as "the orphaned right."

Driving is a right... albeit a forgotten one to the point that the different state governments have taken liberties demanding licensure in order to travel in their provence. We the sheeple have continued to give up our rights one at a time as we let our government decide what is best for us.

As to being a "clown" for not wearing a helmet... which I do NOT by choice... then so be it. However, I at least exercise my own choice in the matter, and do not require you or any government to tell me what's best for me. More riders who wear helmets die or become dependent vegetables as a result of motorcycle accidents than riders who do not wear helmets... the answer is not to "armor up"... the answer is to teach people how to drive.

 

there are great satistics available in book called proficent motorcycling
to summarize, if you have driven less than 2 years or are drunk you will make up 80 percent of the dead bikers , rest of us can be left alone
Mazz

 

more laws = less freedom.

 

For those of you who don't like the Govt interfering with your "rights" on the roads. What if they listened and just stopped regulating anything to do with them. Would you feel safe to know that no one has to have their cars inspected anymore? No regulations on how well their brakes work etc. I mean who are they to tell me that I have to keep my car road worthy and safe. It's my right to drive a car that it takes a quarter mile to stop, right? It's my right to drive a car that smokes so bad that the cloud covers the highway virtually blinding the rest of the drivers, right? It's my right to drive a car without a working horn, so that when my unregulated brakes give out I have no way of warning the traffic at the next intersection that I cant stop and am coming thru, right? Yep, I hate it when the government steps in and takes away my "rights".

 

Are you saying that you don't think a license should be required to drive a car on public roadways? Or a minimum safety requirement?

I don't think you are saying that, as it is pretty ridiculous to put everyone on the road at risk so that you can have what you think is a freedom, so I'm not sure how this factors into your argument. Can you elaborate?

I also don't think that driving a modern automobile on publicly maintained and built roads was ever a right, was it? Maybe when roads were dirt roads and were not maintained by tax dollars, idk.

 

You do not see a difference between endangering others and endangering one's self?
Each one of the examples you have listed are items which are a danger to people other than the driver. If my brakes do not work I am a danger to you on the road. If I choose not to wear a helmet I am not a danger to anyone but myself.
To me helmets are like seatbelts in cars. A good idea to wear one but no business of the government.

Michael