Driving through Indiana today, I was struck by tne number of helmetless motorcycle riders. Riders in shorts and no helmets....that's very scary to me.

What do you think - helmet or no? What's your personal preference if you or yoru loved ones ride? Do you think it should be a law?

cj/

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What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others. -Confucius
What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. -Hillel

If a person values their life, I can't understand why the would ride w/o a helmet. It just seems common sense to me!

We live in a "hot bed" of motorcycle activity--just a little ways from Butte (home of Evil Kneivel) and about 6-7 hours from Sturgis, and about 4 hours from Glacier National Park/Canadian Border. I'd say that it's about a 50/50 split on the helmet.

I just don't understand why you wouldn't ride w/ a helmet--boggles the mind. Of course, I've had the opportunity to see head vs. highway--the highway always wins!

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"In life it is so hard to know which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn....."

This is difficult. We have a motorcycle and the rule here is you have to wear a helmet...period AND full garb (jacket, leathers, etc). It sucks in the summer but we are alive and not all scrapped up.

We are a no helmet required state and we are the only ones in our group of friends who wears them. I think it's funny that we have seat belt laws, car seat laws, drinking and drinking laws but no helmet law. Wouldn't a helmet and a seat belt be the same kind of law? I have seen small children riding behind some of the riders with no helmet and I get SO MAD! I mean, piss away your life but not your kids KWIM? I know two people who have died from no helmet that would have otherwise most likely survived 9it was head injuries that killed them). It's a no brainer but I know A LOT of people around here are against a law to say you have to wear a helmet

Of coarse I think it's kind of an oxymoron when you see a person in a helmet with a tank top (or no top), shorts and flip flops...sure you care about your brain but not the rest of your body? Gives us the heebie jeebies

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and then they wreck, if they do survive then insurance has to kick in, should be some other option for insurance companies about people who think their above death by not wearing a helmet and proper clothing

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We have a helmet law here in CA. But you still see the idiots riding their crotch-rockets in shorts, tanks & flip flops. They just haven't learned that it's not a matter of "if" you go down, it's "when"...

We call them future organ donors.



I think it should be law like seatbelt laws or make some sort of provision that if I hit you accidentally and you die because you didn't have a helmet then I shouldn't have to pay for your mistake for the rest of my life.

What? YOU hit someone and it's not your fault?

dl

I think it should be a law for the riders to wear a helmet . leathers and full shoes, not flip flops. I have had clients who were wearing helmets and hit dogs, deers , gravel or other stuff in the road and wiped out and the road rash is HORRIBLE.... not to mention that some were stuck in wheelchairs now for the rest of their lives.
I also agree that if someone is riding without a helmet and wipes out due to something that wasnt someone elses fault, the insurance shouldnt have to pay for forever for their lack of good sense.

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Just because a motorcyclist doesn't have a helmet on doesn't give anyone else the right to hit and kill them. Even if the motorcyclist had a helmet on doesn't mean that if they're hit they wouldn't die. Sometimes internal injuries is what kills.
I believe in helmet laws for anyone riding a motorcycle. Here in AR the helmet law applies to those under the age of 21.

A 50 year old gal just died from not wearing a helmet. She was on the back of the motorcycle (her hubby was driving) and they swerved to miss a deer. She hit her head on the pavement and was killed instantly.

If I think about it too much I get really worried, but DH doesn't wear enough gear to be safe, we might need a talk about that. He has a great padded leather jacket, but the helmet needs improvement and he would never ride in anything other than at least boots and jeans.

Those people in shorts and tank tops should get pulled over and made to walk home, that is just stupidity. And FLIP FLOPS!

A friend of his just had an accident this past week, looks like he;ll be ok, don't know about the girl he had with him. And my FIL dumped it last year but he was fine, the proper gear makes all of the difference.

I complained about falling in the driveway and skinning my knee, I can't imagine the pain of road burn all over my body. And that would be a lucky accident.

So to the original question, yes to helmet laws! And how about a law against flip flops and shorts?

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SAHM to Thomas Aiden 9-17-01 and Erica Nicole 5-29-03.

Yes, I think you should wear a helmet. But, I must say.... I don't get too upset when I see someone on a bike without a helmet, especially if they're old enough to know better (gray hair). I just tend to think of it as a "natural selection" type of thing. It's nature's way of weeding out the stupid. LOL

Now.... if I saw a CHILD on that bike without a helmet, I think I'd get extremely upset. I get very upset when I see little ones that are not in a seat belt.

.

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I completely agree.

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I think it should be a law that you wear a helmet. I don't ride, but I would love to learn someday. ~Lisa

It's a law in my state that the motorcycle rider must wear a helmet.

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It is STUPID on their part .
I live in Indiana and I totally agree they need to wear helmets! We need our law changed so they have to wear them.

I worked at a hospital and every spring one of the orthopedic doctors refered to them as "our bread and butter."
The bad thing is that we have to pay for medical expenses for those with no hospital insurance.:

There is a couple north of us that are both injured and they are wanting donations for them and their children.

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Here in Virignia you have to wear a helmet.

DH rides with helmet, boots, leather gloves and leather jacket. If he goes down, at least his head and skin is protected.

What we have to watch out for is all the idiots on the road who ignore the motorcyclist!

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I think they call them "donorcycles" around here because of organ donations from brain injuries. That says it all for me!

If adults don't want to wear helmets and wind up dead, that is their choice IMHO. I do think there should be helmet laws for those under 18, kids should be protected until the law says they are an adult and then they are free to make up their own minds.

I have nothing at all against motorcycles and those that ride them but I cannot understand why in the name of all that is holy you'd want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet on.

But then I think the same thing every time I see people riding horses and not wearing helmets. That is something I do have experience with, I've seen first hand what can happen to someone riding without a helmet and it isn't pretty. I can only imagine what it's like to be in a motorcycle wreck with no helmet on.

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Only if they have insurance to take care of their self.
That sounds good but what about the ones that don't end up dead but lay in the hospital running up bill with NO insurance.

It is passed on to those of us who do pay.

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My mom works in a funeral home and they say the difference between helmet/no helmet is open casket/closed casket.

Helmet laws and seatbelt laws are enacted for one reason and one reason ONLY-to generate money into municipal funds.
If the government really cared about our health they would ban HFCS and smoking.
Don't tell me this crap about saving lives of course seatbelts and helmets save lives but it should be a personal choice just like smoking or eating like a pig.
The government and law enforcement care less about your health and safety then they do about how much $$$ they take in.

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I think wether or not riders have insurance is a non-issue. How is a helmetless rider winding up in a hospital on the tax payers dime any different than people having kids they can't afford and one of them winding up in the hospital on the tax payers dime? Or someone with no insurance getting cancer and winding up in the hospital on the tax payers dime? We all wind up paying for things we don't want to, that is the way our society works.

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In your first example the child did nothing wrong. In the second, cancer is liable to strike anyone. Wearing a helmet is a choice.

I think that under age 21, helmets and gear should be required for riders as well as drivers. After age 21, you can either sign a waiver on your driver's license that will remove any responsibility for providing for your medical care if you are hurt while riding on a bike, or option two is to buy special insurance for just such a event. If you chose the first option, you simply take care of any injuries yourself or pay upfront for medical care. In the second option, your special policy would cover you to the limits in the policy. It can get pretty expensive when you end up at age 23 and have to spend the rest of your life in a head injury section of a nursing home.

This is from NHTSA but I'm not sure of the date.

Most of the studies reviewed in the course of this project examined the impact of safety helmets or helmet laws on motorcycle injuries. These studies consistently found that helmet use reduced the fatality rate, the probability and severity of head injuries, the cost of medical treatment, the length of hospital stay, the necessity for special medical treatments (including ventilation, intubation, and follow-up care), and the probability of long-term disability. This work reinforces similar conclusions from earlier studies.

A number of the reviewed studies examined the question of who pays for medical costs. Only slightly more than half of motorcycle crash victims have private health in