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Embrace Life - Always Wear Your Helmet

Should Motorcycle Riders Be Required To Wear Helmets?

  • Yes

    Votes: 40 95.2%

  • No

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Total voters
    42
ucfgrad93

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
19,607
10,914
Colorado
To go along with the thread about seat belts, thought I would start this one about helmet laws.

Do you think motorcycle riders should be required to wear helmets? I do. For the life of me, I don't understand how some states can require seat belts in cars but not helmets for motorcycle riders.:confused:

What are your thoughts?

Interesting website - http://www.usff.com/hldl/frames/50state.html
 
Dagless said:
I thought they were already required.
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Not everywhere I don't think

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Whenever I hear this topic brought up I'm reminded of an exchange between Al Franken and Ronald Reagen that occurred during the primaries in 1976.

In a question-and-answer session at a junior high school gym one morning, Ronald Reagan had said he was opposed to a law requiring motorcycle drivers to wear helmets because such a law would restrict personal freedom. At the next stop, Reagan said he opposed legalizing marijuana because marijuana had been proven to cause brain damage. That night, in yet another forum in a hockey arena at Dartmouth College, Franken left the press section, maneuvered his way into the crowd of voters, and stood up to ask the candidate a question.

"Uh, yeah," Franken said. "Earlier today, you said you were against mandatory motorcycle helmets because that was a limit to personal freedom. Yet you are against decriminalization of marijuana because marijuana causes brain damage. Can't not wearing a motorcycle helmet cause brain damage a lot quicker by, for example, the head splitting open so that actual material from the road enters the brain?"
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Bold emphasis mine

I've always found that to be hilarious. There's no helmet law here in TX as far as I know, but I think there should be.

Edit: Did some quick research and there is a helmet law, but there are exemptions for individuals over 21 that allow for them to not have to wear a helmet if they have completed a rider safety course and have medical health insurance. I think I've got that correct.
 
The whole concept of "personal freedom" was shot down when seat belts were required by law.

Since seat belts are mandatory, helmets on motorcycles seems like a logical continuation of that legislation.
 
Dagless said:
I thought they were already required.
Click to expand...

sadly no. State of Texas does not require them.
Texas has some of the strongest seat belt laws in the country and yet it choose to remove the helmet requirement.

They do make good organ donors those.
 
"You might get hurt" is not necessarily a good enough reason by itself to legislate behavior.

With that being said, riding a motorcycle without a helmet is really foolish. I know two people who were involved in accidents on their motorcycle - one was saved by his helmet and the other died because he wasn't wearing one.

I think it should be a mandatory, like the seatbelt law.
 
My brother was in a really bad motorcycle accident back in 2008. He would have died if he wasn't wearing a helmet. Of course, he was wearing a really good helmet unlike those skull cap helmets you can buy.

I think that helmets should be required. I can't imagine not wearing a helmet. It doesn't matter how good of a driver you are, because most of the time, it's the people around you that you have to worry about.
 
Having had a number of accidents over the years where my head has bumped against the tarmac (or the other party's car) I wouldn't dream of riding a bike without one. You only have one brain, so best to protect it. Here they are compulsory unless you're a Sikh who wears a turban.

I only wear Arai. Cheap helmets are just as bad as none at all.
 
Good helmets have probably saved my life a few times riding dirtbikes. When I saw the state of my helmet after one particular crash I was completely convinced of their importance. Proper riding boots and gloves are also important.

I don't know what the right thing is with helmet laws. Part of me thinks there are too many people on this planet anyway and if someone is stupid enough not to wear a helmet then that's just one less idiot. The other part of me thinks they should be required because, well, they save lives. I digress.
 
iBlue said:
I don't know what the right thing is with helmet laws. Part of me thinks there are too many people on this planet anyway and if someone is stupid enough not to wear a helmet then that's just one less idiot. The other part of me thinks they should be required because, well, they save lives. I digress.
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You can't legislate common sense, and I don't want to live in a nanny state that treats its citizens like toddlers and micromanages our lives. The fact remains that people deserve the freedom to make stupid choices, otherwise we are thralls to our own safety. There is a limit to the level of permissible idiocy though.
 
Mousse said:
I voted yes. If you're not going to wear a helmet for safety reasons, at least do it to keep the bugs out of your teeth.:D
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I thought that's what the bandanna wrapped around the face was for. :D :rolleyes:

Speaking of which, what's the point of those skimpy "brain bucket"-style helmets? I wouldn't want to bump my head into a cupboard wearing one, much less get in a motorcycle wreck.
 
themoonisdown09 said:
My brother was in a really bad motorcycle accident back in 2008. He would have died if he wasn't wearing a helmet. Of course, he was wearing a really good helmet unlike those skull cap helmets you can buy.

I think that helmets should be required. I can't imagine not wearing a helmet. It doesn't matter how good of a driver you are, because most of the time, it's the people around you that you have to worry about.
Click to expand...

That's the big deal right there. Just like driving a car, it doesn't matter how good a driver/rider you are, the other idiots on the road are the problem.

The other thing I don't understand is why people don't want to wear a full face shield helmet. I don't ride, but some of my co-workers do. During spring and summer, they will come in and their face shields will be covered with bugs. I can't imagine all that hitting you in the face, along with rocks, dirt, sand, etc.
 
I havnt read the rest of the posts in this thread apart from the original post....but my opinions is that motorcycle riders should absolutely wear helmets! I'm sure you all think you're perfectly competent riders, and that you wont be the idiot to cause a crash....well that's exactly the opinion my dad had before a car pull out of a junction in front of him. The helmet he was wearing saved his life, the doctors vouched for that.

You don't need to be the one who makes the mistake, to end up in the ambulance. But you still might be the one who pays the biggest price.
 
Florida interesting does not require motorcycle riders to wear helmets, but does require them for skateboarders, non-powered scooter riders, Segway riders, and bicycle riders. There's even a rumour going around that FL will soon require walkers to wear helmets, presumably in case someone trips.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
You can't legislate common sense, and I don't want to live in a nanny state that treats its citizens like toddlers and micromanages our lives. The fact remains that people deserve the freedom to make stupid choices, otherwise we are thralls to our own safety. There is a limit to the level of permissible idiocy though.
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I'd say it about a lot more than legislating common sense. When someone doesn't wear a seatbelt or doesn't wear a helmet and is seriously injured as a direct result of their non-action is costs the state (read: taxpayers) more time and money. It's much easier to have to haul a busted up bike away than to haul a busted up bike and rider.
 
Wow, I'm the second person to vote no.

If helmets are required for motorcycle riders, they should be required for bicyclists on the road too.
 
abijnk said:
I'd say it about a lot more than legislating common sense. When someone doesn't wear a seatbelt or doesn't wear a helmet and is seriously injured as a direct result of their non-action is costs the state (read: taxpayers) more time and money. It's much easier to have to haul a busted up bike away than to haul a busted up bike and rider.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending it. The costs are very real.
 
If you require seatbelts for people in cars;

If you require child safety seats;

If you require helmets for bicycle and skateboard riders;

If you require cars to have airbags;

If you require motor vehicles to be maintained in street-legal condition;

then why can't you require bikers to wear helmets?

Seriously, these laws are in place to help keep people at least safer than they would be without these safety checks. I've owned a motorcycle and wore a helmet; it isn't that cumbersome. It's not like the intent is to cramp your style.
 
kainjow said:
Wow, I'm the second person to vote no.

If helmets are required for motorcycle riders, they should be required for bicyclists on the road too.
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depends how you look at it. On bikes people are moving at much lower speeds and chances are a crash when it happens will be at 10 mph or less. If I am going on a short ride on the street or was riding my bike to class never bothered with a helmat.

Now when I go mountain biking I always were a helmet when I ride then. I have crack a helmet in the pass from a crash. Now when I get a road bike and go on those types of ride hell yeah I will wear a helmet but then agian my speeds getting up there.

That being said when I have kids and they start riding a bike I will enforce a helmet policy.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
On bikes people are moving at much lower speeds and chances are a crash when it happens will be at 10 mph or less.
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This much is true; but the car that plows into you might be going faster.

For the record, when I was a kid I never owned a bicycle helmet. For that matter, nobody did. But I was also probably about 12 years old before I ever met anybody who ever wore a seat belt in a car, but now it seems like they're required just about everywhere you go. They also didn't have proper child safety seats back then; if anything they had something that hooked (yes, hooked) over the backrest of the front seat to hold the kid in place.
 
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