Posted by Hogryder on April 14, 2000 at 07:21:19:
In Reply to: Soapbox time again posted by Hogryder on April 14, 2000 at 02:17:15:
Using your logic then the following also make sense:
You shouldn't be allowed to take a bath without a helmet. More people are killed or injured in bathtubs in the U.S. each year than on motorcycles. Why the hell should I have to pay for you to use such a dangerous household fixture?
No one should be allowed to ride a horse without a helmet. A higher percentage of horsemen (and women) are injured each year than motorcyclists.
Skiing should be banned outright. It's so much more dangerous than riding bikes or taking a bath that it's in a different class all together. Same for mountain climbing, scuba, skydiving swimming, etc.
My point is that there is an element of risk in everything we do from riding bikes to walking down the sidewalk. If you start limiting individual freedom for the sake of "not risking someone else's money", where does it end? With you sealed in a padded metal tube with no contact with the outside world?
How about this statistic. The percentage of uninsured motorcyclists treated in hospitals in the U.S. is much less than the percentage of uninsured automobile drivers and about 50% of the percentage of uninsured patients admitted to hospitals as a whole. This indicates motorcyclists as a group are more responsible and pay their own way more often than automobile drivers or the general public.
How about another statistic. There is a higher percentage of neck injuries and deaths from neck injuries among motorcyclists who have an accident while wearing a full face helmet than from those who wear no helmet.
Put on your bucket, tighten the strap like the manufacturer tells you, and pretend you just went over your handlebars at 60 MPH. The pavement comes up, you land on your belly, and the bottom edge of the chin bar hits the pavement. (Give the chin bar a sharp shove up to simulate this.) Your chin goes up, your head snaps back and the back edge of your helmet digs into your neck. Snap. Your face will be protected. You'll make a good looking corpse.
Helmets save lives. They also kill people. Seat belts save lives. They also kill people. Air bags save lives. They also kill people.
Mandatory helmet laws don't work. States that have passed helmet laws without rider education have seen increased numbers of accidents. States that repeal the laws and have rider education programs have seen fewer accidents.
By the way; The "raw data" cited to support mandatory helmet laws has been proven bogus. It was based upon one study in one hospital and the data was skewed. They counted the number of injured bikers with and without helmets and concluded that because there were more injured people who weren't wearing helmets that helmets prevented injuries. They counted all kinds of injuries, broken legs, broken arms, etc and didn't take into account that there were more bikes without helmets than with in the general population.
Sorry about the long-winded rant. You hit a nerve.