Congratulations, Hoosier motorcycle riders. You no longer have to stop at the state line if you want your brains bashed in:
With hundreds of motorcycle riders outside the Capitol, the Michigan state House today passed a controversial repeal of a mandate for riders to wear helmets.
The legislation passed by a 66-37 vote and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Insurance Journal contacted the Governor's office and her spokesperson Liz Boyd said that "the Governor supports the current helmet law and does not support the repeal." Boyd would not comment further and did not say whether the Governor will, in fact, veto the bill.
Several previous efforts at overturning the law requiring all motorcyclists to wear a helmet have failed. The Michigan mandate has been in place for 37 years.
Comments
Common sense tells us a helmet would be a good idea while riding a two wheeled projectile at high speed.
Common sense tells us it is unwise to put ones fingers in an electrical outlet.
Common sense tells us it is unwise to run with scissors.
These are choices everyone must make for themselves, it is NOT the role of my legislators to use my tax dollars to protect me from myself.
If legislators want to be babysitters, let them babysit their own damn families.
This is not an issue of safety. Helmets do not prevent accidents - safe drivers do. This is an issue of personal freedoms and the right to choose for yourself. How much government do we really need in our lives? I believe that taking responsibility for ones life of an individual, is the main cause for most of our societal problems.
This is not an issue of safety. Helmets do not prevent accidents - safe drivers do. This is an issue of personal freedoms and the right to choose for yourself. How much government do we really need in our lives? I believe that the lack of taking responsibility for ones life, is the main cause for most of our societal problems.
Don't confuse conventional wisdom with common sense. Non-riders are the least qualified people to comment on motorcycle safety, despite the fact that they are the ones most likely to be at-fault when it comes to motorcycle accidents.
For their benefit (and least the ones with open minds), here's a little lesson on helmet laws: They are only effective at reducing the number of bikes on the road. That's how they 'save' lives. Fewer motorcycles = fewer motorcycle accidents.
The proof is the FACT that:
- about 3% of motorcycle accident victims don't survive, regardless of whether they're wearing helmets
- motorcycle registrations typically double when helmet laws get repealed.
- novice and untrained riders are the most at-risk riders
- motorcyclists flock to states that respect their freedom (and they bring their wallets)
- rider training is the most effective way to increase motorcycle safety
People who don't ride have no reason to look beyond the hyped headlines, and they face no real risks regarding motorcycle safety.
Bikers have the most to lose, so risk management is a daily requirement for them. And all the arguments about safety, liability, taxpayer burden, etc., are based on the false premise that helmets are effective. They aren't.
The real winners, of course, are the people needing organ donations.
Runner-up goes to the folks working in long-term care facilities taking care of the accident "survivors."
Justin,
I'm delighted you can see the "upside" of natural selection and non-interference of governmental busy-bodies.
YOU'RE the one who thinks you should be able to ride an open-air high-powered machine that goes 90 mph without any headgear, Tim. I'm just the one who is trying to make the best of scraping up the road.
Oh, yeah, and I'm one of the ones paying higher health insurance premiums so that you can do whatever you want. Vrrrm.
Justin,Justin,Justin
My behavior doesn't affect your insurance premiums in the least.
Now, the behavior of stupid people who are irresponsible (and usually uninsured due to the aforementioned affliction), THEY affect your insurance premiums.
I submit, it is not the legislatures place to try and remove said stupidity from stupid people. That's a job for their family, friends, teachers etc.
It's all about taking responsibility for our actions. If Billy the daredevil decides to race his bike with no helmet and no insurance he has just entered stupid land.
If he wipes out, that's a damn shame, but it's not up to all of us to pay his bills or wipe his arse or keep him alive. That's a problem he brought on himself.
That's the beauty of natural selection, it thins the herd.
There are those who say that they have to wear a seat belt, so we should have to wear a helmet. I have a suggestion to those people: beg, borrow, or steal one of those nifty full faced helmets, put it on and try backing out of your driveway. You may now have a new sense of the peripheral vision and hearing loss experienced by motorcyclists. I then suggest that you try wearing one of those helmets on a 95 degree day with 90 percent humidity and the sun beating down on you while you are stuck in rush hour traffic. At least some of you will change your minds about how wonderful mandatory helmet laws are. There is no comparison between the personal intrusion of a helmet to that of having to put on a seat belt.
In the end, this is not a safety issue, but an issue of fundamental freedom. I have no problems when someone SUGGESTS that we wear a helmet, but I do mind when someone TELLS us that we have to. Do we really wish to have the government legislate the risk out of life by taking away our freedoms? It is very easy to take away the freedoms of a small minority when it does not affect you. Who will be there to protect your freedoms when the government legislates on: mountain climbing, skate boarding, hockey, golf, or helmets in cars? This is still America isn
If
Mandating helmets in all vehicles including automobiles will save far more lives than mandating it for a small minority of vehicles and therefore you should
Almost 3 out of 4 auto-motorcycle accidents are the fault of the automobile driver. Would it not make more sense to increase driver awareness and education to lower the fatality rate? In fact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has itself said that education programs are the most effective means of decreasing the fatality rate. Evidence that these educational programs work comes from the fact that in California, their award winning safety program accounted for a 43% decrease in fatalities and a 40% decrease in injuries from 1986 through 1991. When Pennsylvania repealed its mandatory helmet law, there was a provision for significantly improved rider and driver education and their fatality rate stayed the same despite the increase in automobile and motorcycle registrations. Since most accidents are the automobile
Wow, I guess now we know where the ABATE folks go when they're not riding.....Leo, your blog is obviously Plan B when they can't ride.
If I may paraphrase a common thread running through many of the comments, and agree with it: There is no contradiction between supporting the right of individual choice and not wishing to use that right to volunteer for organ donor duty. Having freedom doesn't necessarily mean we will use it wisely, but if we didn't believe that most people, over the long haul, would act in their own self-interest, there wouldn't be much point to freedom.
I agree with Tim that using motorcycle helmets seems to be common sense -- if you're in danger of having your head hit a fixed object at high speed, protecting your head sounds like a good idea. But maybe Douglas is right that the only reason helmet laws reduce bike accidents is that they reduce the number of bikes on the road. It would be interesting to know, in a state like Indiana where riders have a choice, how many choose to ride helmetless and how many do not. How are these self-interested people voting with their heads?