Originally Posted by
Skittle
I just read the topic,and posted this so sorry if someone already answered this question but...
It is MANDATORY that you wear a helmet,unless you have full coverage insurance on the bike.
Not true. If I'm not mistaken, you have to have a minimum $10,000 personal injury protection if you don't wear a helmet.
Originally Posted by SayWhaa?
eh let people do what they wanna do. if they dont wanna wear a helmet its called population control. ya there will be some of the ones we care for that die in a motorcycle accident because he/she had no helmet but really? let the people do what the people want to do, it's our lifes. if we dont wear a helmet and fall o well that's their face. sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way which sucks.
i always wore my helmet, if i didnt i wouldnt be here. and about the 14mph impact, mine withstood an est 40mph impact and stayed together and saved me life.
I'm kinda torn... I'm a social Darwinist but I would rather see lives saved than lost. Yes, right now it's each individual person's choice and population control is humorous and possibly somewhat needed, but considering the well being of others, whether they are dumb or not, is what's important. Not to mention, when a rider goes down and loses their life, so many people around them are affected: loved ones, family members, friends, and the community of riders, for example Bike Tech.
And from what you have told me of your accident and the pictures you showed me, yeah you probably should not have made it out of that alive. Thankfully you had your helmet on. I am also really happy to see that it did make such an impact on the outcome of your accident, but with the 14 mile per hour thing, I was just going off of what I read online.
Originally Posted by dkutin
I suppose you could argue that accidents with injuries end up costing the general public more money in emergency response, medical insurance, etc. You could also argue that it is dangerous to other passengers in a car if someone decides not to wear their seat belt as their body could go flying into another passenger in an accident. Both of these arguments are valid, but I don't feel they are significant enough to justify limiting individual Freedom. After all, it is the driver's responsibility to protect themselves and those in their vehicle, just as it is the rider's responsibility to make sure they are wearing proper gear. If they do not, they pay the price, as they and only they are at risk.
Valid point. I hadn't even considered the financial aspect of wearing a helmet but that is true. Someone spending two hundred to three hundred dollars on a piece of protective gear is way more cost effective than thousands of dollars in medical bills and thousands of dollars coming out of the government's pocket.
As far as your argument goes that a helmet law is infringement on a free American citizen, what about the eye protection requirement? It is mandatory that riders have to wear glasses or a visor while moving. If you consider that infringement, why not infringe a little more and save lives for a helmet law? Seems better to me.
Originally Posted by RacerRaul
FYI... I have not seen any tests specify the MPH ANY helmet can withstand, be it DOT, ECE or Snell for that matter.
That said, all tests that I have read show that ECE & DOT helmets transfer less g forces to the brain on impact than Snell. So by that bit of scientific data, DOT lids can be said are better than Snell. That puts quite a bit of emphasis on what we pay for with the super expensive name brands.
As for why people opt to not wear a helmet? I think a large majority fall in 2 categories...
Vanity - the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Thus, they want people to see their faces while riding. Or that an accident wont happen to them because they are "under control" by riding in a specific manner.
Broke - going out of their way to finance a toy as a daily driver and not realizing that the gear they can't afford to get is every bit as essential as transportation. If you are wanting to be a 24x7 rider, there is gear for types of weather.
There is no excuse for not having any gear, its a choice people make and quite frankly not a good one either.
Do we need a law? No... it should be common sense.
Simply put, people are lacking common sense, which in turn is making the concept of personal responsibility go down the drain.
Lack of maturity seems to be the reason why people may not be wearing a helmet. "Gas prices are too high so I am going to buy a motorcycle and use it as my daily driver, and endanger my life because I am stupid and irresponsible. In reality I just want a bike so this is my excuse." or "I'm too sexy for my helmet, too sexy for my jacket, too sexy for my gloves, so sexy yeah." I don't think they should be allowed to operate a motor vehicle, let alone a motorcycle.
If people were more responsible and considerate then there wouldn't be the need for a law to require riders to wear a helmet. But since there is such a problem and so many people are dying, the government should step it up and fix the issue at hand.
Originally Posted by ???
where i'd fight for the right to have the choice, the truth is you and i are both wrong for not wearing them 100% of the time. even thou i'm like 99.48%. as you said. shit still happens.
even thou its your choice. its also a choice to give you shit for it lol.
John said it perfectly. Yes, the choice to do as you please is great because it's America and it is a free country. However, it is wrong to not wear a helmet all of the time and you know it in the back of your mind. I have been on a motorcycle once without a helmet I felt insecure for my safety and felt like an idiot and hypocrite because whenever I'm driving down the road and see a person on a bike without one I talk crap about them and how dumb they are.