Topic: Michigan helmet law under review

[sangyo soichiro]

Michigan's Motorcycle Helmet Law Under Review
(2010-03-26)
 
LANSING, MI (ASSOCIATED PRESS) -

The Michigan House has passed a bill that would let motorcycle riders 21 and older travel without helmets, despite the threat of a veto from Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Granholm has vetoed similar legislation twice in the past few years. A spokeswoman said Thursday that Granholm supports Michigan's current law, which requires motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

The Democratic governor has said she has concerns about safety and what would happen to insurance costs if the mandatory helmet law were repealed.

The Democrat-led House on Thursday passed a bill that would repeal the helmet law on a 63-46 vote. The bill now goes to the Republican-led Senate. © Copyright 2010, Associated Press



source

[Bob Wessner]

This is an annual rite of spring. It means riding season is close. 

[sangyo soichiro]

So what happens now?  Can Granholm veto it with a few strokes of a pen and that's it?  If so, it doesn't seem right that it passed with a 63-46 vote, but one lone person can smack it down.


I'd still wear a helmet most of the time, but it'd be nice to not get a ticket if you don't wear one.  I see lots of people in Indiana ride without a helmet. 

[HavocTurbo]

it's my understanding that after it's vetoed it goes back to congress for yet another vote.

If it passes both houses (or maybe it's just one) she gets overruled and it becomes law anyway.


But maybe MI state procedures are different from IL?

[ev0lve]

Personally, here in Washington, I'd much rather they let me lane split than take my helmet off.

Personal freedom to crack my skull seems like grandstanding - but lane splitting - that's downright useful.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Personally, here in Washington, I'd much rather they let me lane split than take my helmet off.

Personal freedom to crack my skull seems like grandstanding - but lane splitting - that's downright useful.

+2.

[syth82]

Yeah, getting rid of helmet laws is kinda dumb, imho. Here in Illinois they'll set up road blocks to check for seatbelts, but they're ok with dumbasses on crotch rockets spreading their brains all over Lake Shore Dr.  

[HavocTurbo]

Yeah, getting rid of helmet laws is kinda dumb, imho. Here in Illinois they'll set up road blocks to check for seatbelts, but they're ok with dumbasses on crotch rockets spreading their brains all over Lake Shore Dr.  

It's my right not to wear one. Seat belt or helmet. Or at least it should be.

I flat refuse to wear a seatbelt after one tried to suffocate me. I tell traffic courts that as well. I have pictures and everything of the bruises on my neck and chest.

I usually get out of those tickets.

As for the retards on crotch rockets.... I have to wear a helmet, I wear glasses.

[Laminar]

Four eyes.

[MickeyX]

I always wonder why people think they have the "right" to go without a helmet?(in a state with helmet laws) Riding a motorcycle on the public streets is a privilege bestowed upon you. They allow you to do it providing you pass all of their criteria. So, how do you get a "right" out of anything that was a "privilege" to begin with?

I don't care who rides with them or not. (The fro I would end up with if I went without a helmet would be frightening.) I care that it is a larger burden to the rest of us to pick up the tab for blatant recklessness of splashing one's gooey brains all over the nice clean street. I think if people want to ride without a helmet, do like the other countries do and charge them more for insurance and make it mandatory to carry a minimum amount of personal medical, like a million or so. That is bare minimum $$ for gooey brains being tucked back in and hooked up to a vent. If you live in a cheaper area of the country, you may be able to afford to get someone to drop by every now and again and roll you over so you don't get sores unless your wife is big enough to do it for you.  She may not like wiping your ass everyday or emptying/changing your catheter, but it was for better or worse, now wasn't it?

I see it all the time (crappy skid lids) and I feel so sad for the wives, husbands, kids that look down on them in the bed and know they are never going to "be there" but they linger anyway. If you think having a DNR will let you die peacefully, you have another thing coming. They will try to save your life anyway and hook you up to all kinds of stuff to keep you breathing and circulating blood long enough to assess if you could eventually at least breathe for yourself or not. That alone will cost $$$. In the meantime, your family still gets the heartache of having some hope and then being the ones to pull the plug. You aren't saving them anything, no matter how you look at it.

I know it's a downer. I wish it wasn't so hazardous to ride without, but it is. I remember as a kid riding all over the dirt track without a helmet and not thinking twice about it. The world around us is moving faster and faster all the time, the roads aren't any better and the cagers are more distracted. Please consider wearing a helmet and gear.  

[andy750]

Well put Mickey. Agree with you 100%.

[tramp]

wear m,y helmet all the time
would wear it even if michigan law would repeal the helmet law
i agree with the feeling of the open air and riding
but my face is just too darn handsome to ruin

[HavocTurbo]

Sorry Mickey... don't mean to ruffle feathers... but:

In the privacy of your own home don't you have the "right" to do wht you please?

Yet you aren't given a home. That's a privelidge.

Everyone says they need to drink more water, yet that isn't a "right" either. You have to pay for that under utilites costs.

Abortion- regardless of how you stand is still technically a "right". It's your body you can do what you want to it. Except try to kill yourself, that's agianst the law.

Evidently driving/riding while wearing whatever I like is now not a "right" either.

Sure riding in sandals and shorts and a t-shirt is quite silly - but I still believe that if that moron wants to put himself at risk... it's their body. Let them suffer.

I do not wear a helmet ALL the time, but I wear glasses.... so I have to wear one to see while going over 30mph. Without it I can't see crap.

SHOULD I wear one.... yes. Should you be able to FORCE me to? You're not my mom. Back the eff off.





Kind of a contradiction considering my stance in the health care issues eh?  Please be gentle Mickey/Kit - I love you both.

[Nikkisixx]

I hate to say it, but I am with Havoc on this one.  I don't need uncle Sam telling me what to do "for my own good".  It is a slippery slope to argue that we must legislate to mitigate rising insurance costs.  Cigs, booze, trans fats, sugar, et al wreck more havoc than bare headed motorcyclists. 

[HavocTurbo]

get it.... wreak more Havoc!!!

hahaha I'm so funny!!!





sorry.

[MickeyX]

Hmmm, I wrote that in English, didn't I? You totally missed what I was saying and put it in a personal attack on yourself. That happens a lot around here lately, though. I should have known it would happen here too.

When I see guys on here bragging that they got MC insurance for $26/yr, how much do you think they covered their medical expenses with that? That was what my ENTIRE post was about. "I don't care if you wear one or not." That was the 1st sentence in my second paragraph. For some reason, you completely discounted all I actually said and made up a story of your own. Congrats, you are now a fiction writer. I hope you make $$ with that talent someday.

As for water, it still flows freely, go get some in a bucket. You are paying for them to deliver it to your house, in nice pipes and cleaned up in a sanitation station and to maintain that service. If you don't want to pay for it, go buy a bucket and walk down to the river or put in a well. Who is stopping you?

As for suicide, it is against the law because someone somewhere along the line read it in the bible and made it into a law. Just like many of our "laws" we have here. You remember that whole thing of separation of church and state. It doesn't exist.

Oh, as for abortion and all that stuff, we live in a country where I can't even get married so don't go on to me about "rights" and equality, buddy. I've had enough of that for a lifetime. I pay my taxes like you and Ed and everyone else, and I have to decide where to live based on the good graces of my state to allow me a "civil union" so we can even try for health insurance. Until we actually are equal, go blow yourself. There, how gentle is that, Joe? 

I don't dislike any of you, but some of the self centered #$%* on this forum really sucks. How about we all get our heads out of our asses and really take a look around at this "utopia" we are told this country is, hmmm?

Have a nice day. I'm going for a ride. Maybe some people on here should just do the same. 

[HavocTurbo]

 

That's not how I meant it at all.

[Gordon]

I think there's some confusion here as to what is actually a "right" versus what some believe should be a person's "right". 

Believing that something should be your right doesn't automatically make it your right if you live in a place where the current law says otherwise.  I believe it should be my right to punch anybody in the face that treats me like crap, but that doesn't mean that I have the right to do that.  I also believe it should be a person's right to choose whether or not they wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, but that doesn't change the fact that in many states in this country it isn't your right. 

[Nikkisixx]

get it.... wreak more Havoc!!!

I was afraid of that when i typed it 

[Frankenkit]

Aww Havoc, we love you, too.. but even I know better than to piss Mickey off before she's had breakfast. Jeez.

[bucky katt]

i am a vocal advocate of helmets and seatbelts. both have saved my life on multiple occasions, the helmet especially (i put my helmeted head partially through a windshield in 1992 after getting hit head on while on my commando, amazing my neck didnt break that time) i am all for personal freedom, i just dont understand why someone would not want to wear a helmet to keep from becoming a cabbage or other favourite vegetable, same goes for seatbealt (hit a moose at 65 in an 81subaru gl10)