Author Topic: Motorcycle helmet law? (Read 3644 times)

nirvana · « **Reply #15 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:21:22 AM »

Did anyone catch the Colbert report with Ralph Nader and they were discussing seatbelts. Colbert said it should be his decision to wear one or not. Nader responded by saying it's the government who has to scrape your body from the pavement, Colbert retorted by asking what if he didn't want them scraping his body off the pavement.

Point being, does it just annoy you hardly anyone wears helmets here or....? It's not really even your tax dollars scraping them off the interstate. I'm really not seeing your complaint.

DiabloTX · « **Reply #16 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:21:22 AM »

Funny, I was just thinking about this subject today, seatbelts though, not helmets. I can't drive a car without being buckled in. I don't like the feel of sliding around in the seat. I have the belt cinched up tight which affords me a better feel for the car. If I am not belted I just feel like I am going for a ride.

The start of the whole seatbelt thing for me was in Feb. 1982 when my next door neighbor's wife and only son were in an accident. The son was driving, his girlfriend in shotgun and his mom in the back seat. To make a long story short the car ahead of him stopped when he wasn't looking. He decided to go around the stopped car...in the left lane directly into oncoming traffic. The son didn't die immediately, the throat laceration he recieved opened his jugular and he bled out in minutes. His mom, riding in the back seat, was flung head first into to the dash board. She made it to the hospital where she lived a few hours until it was determined she was clinically "brain dead" and her husband had to make the decision to "pull the plug" on her. The girlfriend lived albeit with 2 broken legs. She was the only one buckled in. I was 15 and it was the first time death took someone I knew, someone I grew up with, someone that I saw everyday. Since then I've always worn my belt, law or no law, for the fact that I like the feel of it as a driver. And, oh yeah, it does save lives.

B17Skull12 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:21:24 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Sandman
IMHO, they shouldn't be trying to legislate morality at all.

give me a break. if they weren't tring to legislate morality, then the population of us would be a big 1 million:O . Point being that these so call "stupid" little laws keep people alive. If you want to ride without a helmet or not follow these laws, then feel free. You wont get any tears or sorrow out of me. At 17 i've had a dirt bike accident where if not wearing a helmet, i would probably be a vegtable right now. I think there is a saying that goes like this

Better to be safe than sorry.

doogan · « **Reply #18 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:25:40 AM »

wear a helmet, brain or no brain.

seatbelts work wonders, too. wear your seatbelt.

Pei · « **Reply #19 on:** August 07, 2006, 02:22:36 AM »

I think anyone who rides without a helmet is an idiot. That doesn't mean I think there should be a helmet law: I don't believe that we should legislate against idiocy. I you want to forego a helmet that should be your choice, not mine or the state's.

moot · « **Reply #20 on:** August 07, 2006, 02:41:10 AM »

Quote

they legislate morality [...] feel free.

That doesn't add up.

Sort of off topic, but riding a motorcycle, sometimes you get the feeling there's better odds of being hit or cut off by a driver "angry" that you're lanesplitting, then of hurting yourself, with or without a helmet.

Jackal1 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 07, 2006, 04:43:03 AM »

Dago · « **Reply #22 on:** August 07, 2006, 06:34:22 AM »

The people that don't want to wear helmets don't care that it is the rest of us that pays for the lifetime care they will need. Kind of selfish.

Gh0stFT · « **Reply #23 on:** August 07, 2006, 07:03:27 AM »

dont forget to buckle(sp?) the helmet on!
1986 we lost a good friend because that, he forgot to buckle
the Helmet on and got hit from a car, the car hit his left side.
The Helmet went away and he hit the Street with his plain head fatally.
The doctor said beside some scratches he was actually ok and
would survive the impact if he had the Helmet still on. He died at age 16.

Like i said in abother thread, a helmet is like a reserve parachute,
you dont need it daily, but if something went wrong it can save
your live. And you dont need a law to know this.

Masherbrum · « **Reply #24 on:** August 07, 2006, 07:08:50 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lasersailor184
That's one thing that really pisses me off about the anti-seatbelt campaign recently. They cannot at all come up with a morally sound reason why it is a law, so they reason that it is a law because it would hurt your family to see you get hurt.

Pure legislative bull****.

Case #1 - One week before we got married in 1998, my wife got into a car accident. Her 1997 Taurus was deliberately cut off by some *******, he had his wife and kids in the car and was chatting on the cell phone. No sooner than he completed the "cut off maneuver" he slammed on the brakes. She hit him at about 55 mph. He never even asked if she was ok, or let her use the cell phone to call me. The Michigan State Trooper did.

Had she NOT been wearing a seat belt, she would have been dead.

Case #2 - One year before we got married, the best Man in our wedding (my buddy since the 7th grade) was in an accident on the way to work. He was working at Monrovia Nursery in Dayton, Oregon and was 100 yards from the driveway. A lifted Toyota was speeding and weaving, lost control, and my buddy's Escort went between the Trucks wheelbase and rolled onto and off of it. His right heel sheered from hitting the brake, and his left leg was behind his head. He laid there for 45 minutes. Two paramedics had given him up for dead, the third refused to call it, and found a faint pulse. He was in a coma for a month. I flew out in January when he came out. He had to "re-learn" how to walk.

Had he NOT been wearing a seat belt, he would have been dead.

Case #3 - Back in 1997, I was riding along with my old neighbor (he was the Midnight shift supervisor at Farmington Hills PD. We responded to a vehicular accident and I got out (really wasn't supposed to) and helped my neighbor (we were the first responders). Three women were on the way home for a Bachelorette Party. The driver had "been drinking the least" and was NOT wearing a seat belt. Her mouth hit the A-pillar, ripping her flesh and breaking (probably shattered) her jaw. My neighbor tried giving her CPR, but the torn skin wouldn't let him get a good seal. She died on the scene. She was the Bride.

Had she BEEN WEARING her seat belt, she would have lived.

I wear mine. To disagree with the seat belt law, especially calling it "pure Legislative bull*****" is incorrect.

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #25 on:** August 07, 2006, 07:41:19 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Sandman
IMHO, they shouldn't be trying to legislate morality at all.

I'm currently reading "The Law" and I'm beginning to really agree.

Quote

Helmet and seatbelt laws are an affront to liberty. The only borderline case I could see for them would be for people under 18.

I agree exactly. If you're under 18, you have no choice about a helmet or seatbelt.

Quote

The people that don't want to wear helmets don't care that it is the rest of us that pays for the lifetime care they will need. Kind of selfish.

Actually just the opposite. It wasn't freedom or concerns about liberty that pushed through no-helmet laws, but the insurance lobby. And since the insurance lobby pushed it through, that means that it costs less medically for them instead of the person wearing a helmet. That means in the whole, it costs less medically for you to not wear a helmet.

It's very socialistic to say that it's selfish to do something you want to do. Be very careful young one.

Quote

Funny, I was just thinking about this subject today, seatbelts though, not helmets. I can't drive a car without being buckled in. I don't like the feel of sliding around in the seat. I have the belt cinched up tight which affords me a better feel for the car. If I am not belted I just feel like I am going for a ride.

Same thing for me. I grew up wearing a seatbelt. It just feels odd not to wear one while driving.

But I'd rather hammer each nut twice then ever take away another person's liberty to do what they want which does not affect other people.

john9001 · « **Reply #26 on:** August 07, 2006, 07:52:17 AM »

helmets and seat belts (and air bags) only work after the incident, the emphases should be on prevention of such incidents by better driving habits.

no state has a law banning helmets, you want to wear one do it.

i started installing seat belts in my cars about 1959-60, not to help after a wreck but to give me better control of the car to prevent a wreck, (i drove verry fast when i was young and stupid).

FiLtH · « **Reply #27 on:** August 07, 2006, 08:03:21 AM »

I dont ride bikes. Its the other drivers Im afraid of. Things happen too quick and you can't strap into a bike like you can a car. But if I did ride Id have leathers,pads, and of course a helmet.

I live in NH. We dont have a helmet law. Just alot of brain injured residents. (This line is denied sig material)

lazs2 · « **Reply #28 on:** August 07, 2006, 08:05:31 AM »

It is not my business to tell anyone to wear a seatbelt or helmet. If I think I am paying too much for their care or injuries then I will get insurance that gives me a discount for helmet or seatbelt use and start wearing both.

How did you all like the big rebate check from the insurance companies you got when we all had to wear seatbelts and helmets? the HUGE drop in your rates?

Anyone not wearing a nomex firesuit in a car is an idiot.... Not wearing a nomex firesuit and helmet in a car = darwin candidate.

Lots of people fall asleep at the wheel... How bout we pass a law that every hour.... it is the law that every driver pull over and hop up and down on one leg while waving his arms around and making chicken noises? I bet that would wake him up and save us a bundle.... if it saved even one life eh???

My guess is that you wussies would all be hopping and flapping and clucking and paying the extra money for cops to check your log books and enforce the new law and then...

coming on here to defend it like the morons you are.

lazs

Masherbrum · « **Reply #29 on:** August 07, 2006, 08:10:30 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
It is not my business to tell anyone to wear a seatbelt or helmet. If I think I am paying too much for their care or injuries then I will get insurance that gives me a discount for helmet or seatbelt use and start wearing both.

coming on here to defend it like the morons you are.

lazs

This supercedes "money", at least for me it is. If you don't see beyond "the money", they are outlying issues that need to be taken care of.