Originally Posted By dshyates A helmetless rider on a protest ride against helmet use dies from head injury from motorcycle wreck. <a href="http://m.cnn.com/primary/_bGLL9X-itOoWwDBOK" target="_blank">http://m.cnn.com/primary/_bGLL...OoWwDBOK</a>
Originally Posted By wahooskipper That happened here in Florida. One of the leading proponents of eliminating the helmet law here in Florida died in a motorcycle crashed just a week or so after the law was repealed. She wasn't wearing a helmet that doctors said would have saved her life. Go figure.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA While ironic, for sure, the point of the law isn't whether helmets save lives -- they do. It's whether motorcycle riders want that legislated at them.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Well, I'm sure drug abusers would prefer to not have legislation aimed at them either. Seatbelt laws, child restraint laws also come to mind for that matter. In Florida the law states that a motorcycle rider must have a $1 million insurance policy if they are got to choose to ride without a helmet. I can get behind that from the sense that the community won't have to pay for the ignorance.
Originally Posted By fkurucz I was thinking the other day about how cars have become progressively safer over the years with many safety features forced upon manufactureres and customers, yet motorcycles are deathtraps. Every year the local Harley dealership sponsors a biker event. Hundreds show up from out of town and every year we have at least one traffic related fatality.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "It's whether motorcycle riders want that legislated at them." The paramedics that respond to your inevitable motorcycle accident would rather deal with a bump on the noggin' than to fiddle around with your brain matter. Tax payers and hospitals would be better off if your injuries did not require futile life-saving surgery that you won't pay for when your heart stops beating. Surgery that you might not be able to pay for even if you live.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^^It's like someone pointed out on another blog: all those people who love to wave their "Don't tread on me" flags with one hand are quick to reach out for their taxpayer funded cheese with the other hand.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA So, motorcycle riders who don't wear helmets are also welfare recipients? Do I have that right?
Originally Posted By DVCdad3 "all those people who love to wave their "Don't tread on me" flags with one hand are quick to reach out for their taxpayer funded cheese with the other hand." Not sure I understand this statement.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Its as spokker pointed out: they refuse to wear a helmet but if they are injured and/or disabled they expect the taxpayers to pick up the tab, even though they fancy themselves as "rugged individualists" who no doubt look down on welfare recipients. Kind of like those "rugged and independent" farmers in Texas who are lining for gov't assistance as many are losing their crops to the drought. But in their case it's not welfare, you see. It's also not welfare when they get their USDA subsidies either.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Actually, it's the bikers that wear the helmets that end up with debilitating physical injuries that put them on disability. ER Drs and nurses have a term for bikers who choose not to wear a helmet: organ donors.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^I guess it depends on the crash. But yeah, motorcycles are deathtraps.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Tell me about it. I lost a cousin on a Harley (no helmet) a friend on a Ducate (probable helmet) and I have a friend who was in a very slow speed accident that left him out of work and in physical therapy for over a year, and he'll never walk right again.
Originally Posted By dshyates The irony part I was mentioning was simply that he was participating in a protest ride against helmet use when he died from not wearing a helmet. I wasn't trying to make a judgement about helmet use. Heck I am a smoker so I say let freedom ring. You gotta die from something, might as well be from something you enjoy.
