When Teri Nolan and her husband, Mike, opened Hammer's Hawgs Custom Motorcycles Inc. in New Port Richey three years ago, calls from prospective motorcycle owners would trickle in from time to time.

But about a year ago, as many as two dozen people a week were calling and visiting the couple's shop on State Road 54, Teri Nolan said. And the faces of these motorcycle buyers were changing along with their numbers, she said.

"It's such a wide variety," said Nolan, 46. "Now you have lawyers and doctors and kids and moms. Not what people think of with the black leather and the renegades."

As gas prices hover around $2 a gallon, more people of all occupations have been turning to motorcycles to save money.

An additional 2,000 Pasco residents obtained motorcycle endorsements in 2004, according to state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles numbers. This is roughly twice the annual number being addded two or three years ago.

The average motorcycle gets anywhere from 35 to 50 miles per gallon, while the average midsize car gets roughly 16 to 20 miles per gallon, according to Environmental Protection Agency 2005 gas mileage statistics. Combine fuel economy with increased motorcycle publicity and that helps explain why more people are turning to this two-wheeled form of transportation, Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Larry Coggins said.

"We see as gas prices go up, motorcycle sales go up because people can go farther for a little bit less," Coggins said.

But as the number of motorcycles on Florida roads jumps, so does the number of motorcycle accidents.

About 340 motorcyclists died on Florida roads in 2003, the most recent year for which Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles statistics were available. This is more than double the number of motorcycle fatalities on Florida roads just four years ago, when numbers began to mount. And April 28, three Pasco County motorcyclists died in three separate accidents, just days before May 1, the beginning of Motorcycle Safety Month.

But the morning crowd at Hammer's Hawgs are quick to remind people that motorcyclists aren't the only ones causing the surge in accidents. Conversation inside the shop is punctuated with tales of accidents caused by "four wheelers" pulling in front of motorcycles or changing lanes without notice. And a poster hanging below the cash register, reading "I look out for you on the road. Return the Favor!" urges motorists to watch for motorcycles.

Coggins said, in the accidents he handles with the highway patrol, the majority are caused by other vehicles violating the right of way of motorcycles. This was the case in two April accidents in Port Richey.

Just to the left of the safety poster below the Hammer's Hawgs cash register, Tarpon Springs resident David Fiering, 47, perches on a stool, waiting for news on his wrecked black 1988 Harley Davidson, which was smashed when a car swerved in front of him May 9. With a cast on each wrist and a baseball cap proclaiming "Road Legends Never Die" on his head, Fiering explained the crash would have thrown him from the bike had his arms not gotten caught in his side mirrors. The driver was ticketed. Fiering fractured both wrists.

"It's going to make me watch those people a whole lot more," he said.

The surge in accidents also has renewed debate over motorcycle helmet use. A Florida law passed in 2000 allows motorcyclists older than 21 to forgo wearing a helmet as long as they carry at least $10,000 in medical benefits covering motorcycle injuries. Four other states also have relaxed their helmet laws since 1995.

James "Doc" Reichenbach II, president and lobbyist for the Florida chapter of the motorcycle advocacy group American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, also called ABATE, said the group thinks the best way to promote motorcycle safety is to "educate, not legislate." The group has plans to put up at least four motorcycle safety billboards within the next two months as part of the group's motorcycle safety education efforts, Reichenbach said. And he said he just returned from Tallahassee where he had been pushing for stricter penalties for drivers who hit motorcyclists.

But Reichenbach said he still is criticized when a motorcyclist dies while not wearing a helmet.

"If one of my people gets hurt, I don't hear the last of it," he said. "People tend to forget that we're also taxpayers."

Mike "ALF" Nolan, 49, owner of Hammer's Hawgs, said many motorcyclists have their reasons for choosing not to wear helmets.

"Some people will choose not to wear a helmet because it restricts their vision or their audio or it restricts their circulation and gives them headaches," said Nolan, who is also the president of the recently formed Cotee River Chapter of ABATE, the only ABATE chapter in Pasco.

Motorcyclist Kathy Meyers, 45, said in her work in the medical field as a certified medical assistant in New Port Richey, she has seen both sides of the debate.

"I have seen both the benefits and drawbacks of a helmet," said Meyers, sitting outside the Harley Davidson shop, 5817 S.R. 54 in New Port Richey. I've seen people go down at 35 miles per hour and they're paralyzed because of the weight of the helmet."

Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles crash statistics show that in the more than 300 fatal crashes in 2003 half of those killed were wearing helmets.

But Ernesto Duarte, chief of public affairs for the Florida Highway Patrol, said the agency recommends helmet use.

"Obviously there are going to be times when that helmet isn't going to save someone," Duarte said. "But oftentimes, some of the minor crashes that are survivable do result in serious injury and death because the driver isn't wearing a helmet."

New Port Richey resident, Thomas Lyons, 67, said he can't imagine riding his 2001 Harley Davidson without his helmet. He said he thinks riders do have the right to choose, but he said was glad he chose to wear his helmet the two times he has gone down while riding.

"The first thing that hit was my head," Lyons said. "Without the helmet, it would have busted wide open."

Daniel Frank, 59, a "professional biker," who has been riding motorcycles for almost five decades, said the best way for a rider to avoid being injured in an accident is to take a motorcycle safety course. In fact, Frank, a Holiday resident and a regular at Hammer's Hawgs, said a new rider should take the full course at least twice.

"You never know how to ride a bike," Frank said. "The day you think you can is the day you're going to have your next accident."