PITTSBURG POST-GAZETTE Editorial: …But since 2003 most motorcycle riders in Pennsylvania have been allowed to go helmet-less in the name of freedom. The results have been predictable. The Governors Highway Safety Association reports a rising national epidemic of motorcycle fatalities, including 210 in Pennsylvania last year — a 5.5 percent increase.
More than 5,000 riders died in the nation in 2012, only the third time that has occurred. The report points out that the number of motorcycle deaths more than doubled between 1997 and 2011, even as overall traffic fatalities fell by 23 percent.
Dangerous situations demand helmets. Football players don’t play without them, soldiers don’t fight without them and competitive motorcycle racers strap them on. The human brain is fragile. When an unprotected skull hits the roadway, the brain usually loses… (more)
EDITOR: As a former motorcyclist, we cringe when we see riders and their passengers without helmets. It is wonderful to ride a cycle, but inherently dangerous because of oil spills, gravel in the road, and car drivers failure to note the cyclist. We can’t protect the cyclist with air bags, so the best we can do is make sure they wear helmets… not just for their own sake, but for the family’s sake and potential costs to the community.
Wikipedia finds fault with the numbers from the Gazette. The key cause of Motorcycle accidents is speed and the riders skill. I too rode a bike for years and always wore a helmet but I can’t see legislating someone else’s choice. The libertarian in me see’s no reason to care for anyone more than they care about themselves.
The point person behind Pennsylvania’s repeal of motorcycle helmet laws is the past president of the American Motorcyclist Association, Lancaster’s own J. Richard Gray:
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/3649_Law-or-no-law–cyclists-say-helmets-will-stay-on.html
Lancaster attorney and avid motorcyclist J. Richard Gray said the change in Pennsylvania’s law is not a case of “helmets vs. no helmets.”
“It’s about who should decide what’s best for an individual person — that person or the government,” said Gray, chairman of the board of directors for American Motorcyclists Association.
Gray has been fighting Pennsylvania’s helmet law since it was instituted 35 years ago.
“I went to my first anti-helmet-law rally the night before Pennsylvania’s helmet law took effect in 1968,” he said. “Helmets are for personal protection.”
Despite his opposition to helmet laws, Gray said he has always worn — and will always wear — a helmet.
“I’ve ridden 30,000 miles already this year, many of them through states where you don’t have to wear helmets,” he said. “I had a helmet on for every mile.”