Topic: Helmet Laws?????????????

[1974CB750rider]

I've talked to a lot my buddies lately and they've been saying that Tennessee is getting ready to abolish the helmet law. I'm just curious about other states that don't have one and how many people would really ride without one. I for one would not do so.

[bender01]

Im in SC. No law here. I wear one but probably 80% dont. I do ride to the beach and back at the end of my road without one so I guess thats not safe. It is a personal freedom that one should be able to make. Some states make kids wear bike helmets! ( For their bicycles)

[jesus freek]

I am from Mich, but moved here to Indiana 4 mnths ago and I ride both a dual sport and my 75 550f and all day you see these riders without helmets. I ride with a helmet every time. My m.o." atgatt"  all the gear all the time. Helmet open face on the 550 and a mx on the d/s and kevlar line coat, boots, gloves etc. FYI my first 2 weeks down here 5 riders DIED in the Fort Wayne area, 2 on sport bikes racing through downtown,one head on with a car on rt3, 1 on I 69 m/c deer, I guess we know who one that on and a drunk on a scooter.

[jjj83]

I know Georgia does but they have been debating for years to abolish it as well but IDK if I'll ever take the chance of not wearing a helmet.  The only reason I am alive is bc of one so but its your choice!!!!

[Frankenkit]

It's a matter of personal freedom, sure.  I work at a trauma center and see the terrible things that happen to peoples heads/faces when they ARE wearing helmets (and the few rare times when someone went helmetless 'round the block after tuning something on their bike and got creamed by a cager) I can't imagine myself ever riding without one.  I have a modular fullface helmet for when it's cold out and a 3/4 visored one for when it's hot out.  Some people I know will never wear a 3/4 even, because the chin-bar and that part of the face seem to be the most commonly hit.  I don't think WA has helmet laws, and a lot of HD  people around here wear fake-o beanie helmets that do *nothing* except... idunno, look good? look 'badass'?  Split on impact?

I dunno.  People can do w/e they feel like, but I hope they're insured and their families will be taken care of if their brains get splattered.  It's not actual death that people should be afraid of. It's the lifetime spent #$%*ting themselves and eating through tubes that should encourage them, but if common sense won't, legislation won't either.

[1974CB750rider]

I got a z50 when I was 7y/o and my dad inbeded the helmet law in my head. That was 30years ago now and he's passed away but to this day that programming has stayed with me. I don't care if TN. does away with it I'll always wear one. It just shocks me to hear people talk that if they didn't have to wear one they wouldn't.

[johnyvilla]

Illinois has no helmet law. Hell, our crotchrocketeers sometimes ride with nothing but Oakleys, shorts and sandals. I most always wear my gear, but I think people should have the right not to wear gear;

   as long as their cool with: skin grafts, feeding tubes, wheelchairs, colostomy bags, home health care nurses, public aid, bed sores, etc. Working in health care for the last 15 years, I have seen a lot of HD, and naked lady tattoos on emaciated bed-ridden bodies. One of my first jobs was at a nursing home. One of my residents was this long-haired dude with tat's up and down his body. Chicks, skulls, FTW, the whole bit. He also had a huge dent in his skull from his accident. The guy could sorta feebly wheel him self around, but every thing was "Gra, gra, gra, gra!" with him. I had to dress him in all these 'wicked' m/c shirts every day, and straight-cath his penis. No one visited the poor guy. I remember it seeming kind of queer to me back then; how much time he must have spent trying looking cool, and he wound up being this eating, farting, mumbling machine, that no one cared to visit.
 
But still, it's your life.

[seaweb11]

No helmet laws in SD, MT, or WY ...................This summer it seemed a good idea to "ride with my freedom" from time to time

After my moment of Zen............I'm kind of glad they don't let me do this at home

[mgbgt89]

No helmet law in indiana. I almost always wear one. I think i can count on one hand the number of times i haven't. Most of those were tuning the bike, running up and down the country road i live on.

I wear 1/2 helmet probably 75% of the time. If its too cold out for that, then i switch to a full faced. 

[Mediconi]

No helmet law in NM unless you're under 18, then it's mandatory. I wear one 100% of the time though...

[deuce_454]

after having worked in the neurosurgery dept... i would never ever ride without a helmet, even if it is nice to feel the wind and all, but ive seen people younger than me dying from a seemingly insignificant bump.. it only takes hitting the curb once, head first at 10 mph and you are gone....

[bucky katt]

i wont get on one without a helmet on, i'm WAY too susceptible to brain injuries now.

[Mediconi]

after having worked in the neurosurgery dept... i would never ever ride without a helmet, even if it is nice to feel the wind and all, but ive seen people younger than me dying from a seemingly insignificant bump.. it only takes hitting the curb once, head first at 10 mph and you are gone....

I'm with you on that one. I've spent way too much time working on patients who didn't think they needed to wear helmets. Most of them we get don't even last till we get to the ED

[hymodyne]

I'm originally from Indiana (Fort Wayne) and am still amazed whenever i go home to visit family how many folks are riding on city streets and interstates with no helmet. Likewise, in my riding in PA and DE wher there are also no helmet laws I often wonder how many accidents are made more serious by the rider's lack of a lid.

I understand free choice and individual rights, but wonder if perhaps this particular example of that freedom isn't exercized at a risk that is too high and too costly to make it worth it.

hym

[scartail]

Florida here.

No helmet required, if you have a certain level of PIP or something like that. Eye protection required.

I personally wouldn't ride on the streets without it.

What I have heard is that the insurance companies lobbied to get rid of the helmet law in our state. The insurance companies don't have to pay out as much for dead people.

[vanaman]

here in ohio there is no true helmet law.  but while you have a permit and your first year of having a MC endorsement you are required.  which i think is a good thing, becasue us noobies are teh most prone to incidnets.

i wear my helmet, jacket and gloves all the time unless im moving my bike in a parking lot or something.  then when im playing the dirt its just a helmet and gloves.

steve

[Steve_K]

No helmets in Iowa.  Bare heads evenon new bikers, with shorts, tanktops and flipflops.  I pains me to see not realize how painfull it would be to be riding and slide on pavement.  Sliding on pavement creats heat.
Steve

[Honda George]

No helmet law in Kansas if over 18. Usually I ride without one but can go either way. I just have a problem with it being legislated. Insurance companies will not admit it but I believe they profit when unhelmeted motorcyclist are involved in accidents. Thirty years ago they introduced helmet laws yearly but I believe they have seem the economic profitability of not having helmet laws. Like it was stated above, dead people are less costly. In my experience, the majority of motorcycle accidents are caused by inexperience, "left turners" and alcohol.

[IHWillys]

No helmet law here in Colorado if over 18.  I haven't been on the lookout to notice this but I would guess it's close to 50/50 overall wearers to non.  It *seems* there are more non-wearers on Harleys but close to campus there are plenty of helmetless riders and passengers on bikes of all types.  Part of the Harley vs sportbike difference may be that a helmet can be seen as another aspect of the "cool" of riding a sportbike whereas with cruisers the helmet is not. 

I was a mixed wearer up to about 15 years ago.  Then I was hit by a pickup truck when I had no helmet on(pickup flipped a U-turn across a double yellow line right into me).  I believe that I would have walked home if I had been wearing my helmet.  As it was, ambulance ride to ER.  I was extremely lucky in many ways and realized it.  Now I can't bring myself to ride without one.

Ken

[Big Bob]

If you want to see something funny get me going on my few years as a member of ABATE of Illinois.

While I respect all that ABATE has done on behalf of motorcyclists in the USA I was appalled at the methods used.  Misused and misquoted statistics, distortions, and outright lies.  I went from wanting to be an active member to just being a member and making use of the information shared at the meetings to quitting altogether.

I respect people's rights to make their own choices in all things.  Even if they're bad choices.  You have a right to be foolish.  But telling lies to make your point is disgusting.

Me?  Full face helmet all the time.  Road, track, commuting, touring, off-road, you name it.

[neudl]

I grew up in Colorado, where there was a helmet law that was repealed years back. Every time I go back to visit family, I am amazed at how few riders wear helmets. I would guess less than 25%.  While it is law in WA where I live now, I just can't imagine riding without a helmet.  The closest I get is putting around my yard on my dirtbike.  It seems like common sense to me.  On a side note, the whole libertarian attitude - hey it's his head, and he should have the right to chose - ignores the societal costs of treating preventable injuries.  We all pay, in the form of higher insurance premiums and health care costs, for those who make the decision to take the risk.

[Big Bob]

On a side note, the whole libertarian attitude - hey it's his head, and he should have the right to chose - ignores the societal costs of treating preventable injuries.  We all pay, in the form of higher insurance premiums and health care costs, for those who make the decision to take the risk.

Agreed.

However, we also all pay the costs for people who make other poor choices.

Want to REALLY save money?  Outlaw junk food and smoking.  The money spent on care for motorcycle injuries is a drop in the bucket by comparison.  If you're going to start legislatiing against people making poor choices where do you stop?

[lynchj]

Conncticut here, no helmet law, eye protection only.

I think the "loud pipes saves lives" is what "protecting"  riders here. I know that's another subject altogether.

I've scraped up many bikers off roads and guard rails as an EMT, every fatality I have seen had no helmet. I won't ride without one.

[Popwood]

I'm a full-face helmet guy.

I think the law ought to be broadened to include cagers required to wear helmets and gloves. That way, we'd all be safer because they couldn't be on their damn cell phones or texting!

[deuce_454]

I'm a full-face helmet guy.

I think the law ought to be broadened to include cagers required to wear helmets and gloves. That way, we'd all be safer because they couldn't be on their damn cell phones or texting!

helmets and mittens...