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<div align="left">Seems that Kentucky couldn't figure it out on their own before hand. Repeal the helmet law and motorcycle death rates will increase.
Here is the link:
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/10/30ky/wir-front-motorcycle1030-11361.html
And the article:
-----------------
Motorcycle deaths rise after helmet-law repeal
Federal study finds Kentucky fatalities increased 58 percent
By JAMES R. CARROLL
The Courier-Journal
WASHINGTON - When Mark Key crashed his motorcycle in downtown Louisville on July 23, 2002, he wasn't wearing a helmet. His head injuries were so severe that doctors told his wife, Monica, to prepare for the worst.
"Two doctors predicted to her, `Don't look for him to make it tonight,'" Key said he was told later.
But Key survived, just missing becoming one of the rising number of motorcycle deaths in Kentucky since the state's mandatory helmet law was repealed in 1998.
Motorcycle deaths increased by 58 percent in the two years after the helmet law was scrapped, and use of helmets quickly dropped, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The study focused on Kentucky and Louisiana, which repealed its helmet law in 1999. In that state, motorcycle deaths soared by 111 percent in the two years after repeal, the study said.
"The findings aren't any surprise," said traffic agency spokesman Rae Tyson. "It is pretty consistent with what we see whenever a state repeals its helmet law."
Helmet law opponents, however, disputed the findings.
"What they have failed to take into account is the increased number of riders in the state," said Jay Huber of Union, Ky., president of the Kentucky Motorcycle Association.
Huber also said deaths on motorcycles can't be attributed to whether a rider used a helmet. He said his examination of the statistics showed that half of those killed on motorcycles wore helmets.
The federal study, however, said the rate of fatalities per motorcycle registration in Kentucky increased 37 percent, faster than the increase in the number of registrations, which was 20 percent. The national fatality rate, based on the number of riders killed per 10,000 registered motorcycles, was 6.3 in 2000, compared with 8.2 in Kentucky.
The study did not include 2001 or 2002, but figures obtained from the traffic safety administration show that Kentucky's motorcycle fatality rate increased to 12.77 in 2001.
INDIANA, WHICH repealed its mandatory helmet law in 1977, had a 2001 fatality rate of 5.89.
As of 2000, 44,003 motorcycles were registered in Kentucky, according to administration data, up from 39,901 in 1998 and 36,603 in 1996. Indiana had 118,000 registered motorcycles in 2000, up from 97,000 in 1996.
"More people are getting involved in motorcycling," Tyson said. "But even taking that into account, we can't help but believe there is some correlation between a state repealing its helmet laws and the increase in fatalities."
The federal study said that crash statistics showed motorcycle accidents involving deaths and injuries went up after the helmet law was repealed. For example, in 1997, the year before the repeal, there were 24 motorcycle fatalities and 695 injuries. In 1999, the year after the repeal, there were 40 motorcycle deaths and 934 injuries.
Helmet use in Kentucky changed dramatically after the repeal, the study said.
Before the change, 96 percent of motorcycle riders used helmets. In 1999, the number dropped to 65 percent.
Kentucky had passed its helmet law in 1968. But in July 1998, Sen. Dan Seum, R-Louisville, sponsored legislation to repeal it for people 21 and older.
WHETHER TO wear a helmet should be left to "adults making decisions on their own," Seum said. He said he hadn't seen the new federal study but added, "most of the time, those things are pretty self-serving."
But Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, expects to prefile legislation for the 2004 General Assembly that would restore Kentucky's helmet law.
The new study, she said, "will be very beneficial in hopefully convincing my colleagues that the lives of Kentuckians can be saved with a very simple mechanism, and that's wearing a helmet."
Kentucky's repeal has been part of a national trend.
In 1975, 47 states and the District of Columbia had helmet laws, which Congress had encouraged by threatening to cut federal highway aid for states that refused to go along. But lawmakers that year ended the threat, and half the states subsequently repealed or amended their helmet laws. Indiana, which had enacted a helmet law in 1967, repealed it in 1977 but in 1985 required helmets for riders under 18.
Congress enacted new laws to encourage helmet use in the early 1990s, but then abandoned the idea again. More states repealed their laws, and now only 19 states and the District of Columbia still have sweeping helmet-use laws.
REPEALING THE helmet law was a huge mistake, Key said.
"I would vote on (reinstating) it ASAP," he said.
His injuries required three weeks in the hospital and six months at a rehabilitation facility, plus six more months of daily visits for additional rehabilitation. Key said he couldn't remember the accident and couldn't remember people. Gradually that improved, but he lost his floor-care business.
"It's been rough, but I'm doing OK," Key said. The 40-year-old Middletown, Ky., resident ended his rehabilitation on Oct. 10, and received his new driver's license last Friday.
But he's done with motorcycles.
"Never again," he said.
When he sold his Harley-Davidson, he told the couple buying it he would not go through with the deal unless they purchased helmets. They left to buy them, then came back to pick up the bike.
Key, whose wife owns an advertising company, is thinking of going to college and becoming a teacher. His insurance covered his bills; he has no idea what the total came to.
He tells friends who still ride motorcycles to wear helmets.
"They listen, but I can tell they are barely listening," Key said.
Phil Capito, a 44-year-old computer analyst in Louisville who rides a Kawasaki KZ1000, said he doesn't support reinstating the helmet law, but uses one himself.
"I BELIEVE IT'S a personal choice," he said. "... I've been riding 37 years. I was basically brought up on a motorcycle. I never rode one without a helmet."
He believes the helmet provides some measure of protection, though he's never had to find out. On the other hand, Capito said he once saw an accident in which the motorcyclist was wearing a helmet and died anyway.
Chris Kern, 27, of Sellersburg, Ind., a detail manager at a body shop, said he rides his Suzuki Katana with his helmet on "about 25 percent of the time."
The helmet may protect him in some crashes, he said, but the government should not make him wear it.
"There's a sense of freedom without the helmet on," Kern said.
Huber of the Kentucky Motorcycle Association said helmets "can have good and bad effects."
They can protect in some crashes, he said, but also can inhibit the motorcyclist's vision, impair hearing, and in warm weather produce heat stress.
"It's a freedom issue as well. Does the government need to be playing nanny to us?" Huber said.
If others have to pay for that freedom, the answer is yes, said Dr. Todd Vitaz, assistant professor of neurologic surgery at University Hospital in Louisville and co-director of the hospital's Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit.
Vitaz was one of the authors of a study released last June that found motorcyclists who didn't wear helmets were more than four times as likely to suffer severe brain injuries as those who used helmets.
BETWEEN 1995 and 2000, motorcyclists without helmets who were treated at University Hospital ran up acute-care charges totaling more than $1.97 million, Vitaz found. The costs did not include physicians' fees, rehabilitation and lost time from work.
"Why should society pay for their freedom" not to wear helmets, Vitaz said. "That's a significant burden."
Marzian agreed.
"If they don't want to wear their motorcycle helmets, don't ask the taxpayers to foot the bill," she said.
-----------
Interesting read.
Pardon if it is a repeat.
-Flash</div id="left">
Here is the link:
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/10/30ky/wir-front-motorcycle1030-11361.html
And the article:
-----------------
Motorcycle deaths rise after helmet-law repeal
Federal study finds Kentucky fatalities increased 58 percent
By JAMES R. CARROLL
The Courier-Journal
WASHINGTON - When Mark Key crashed his motorcycle in downtown Louisville on July 23, 2002, he wasn't wearing a helmet. His head injuries were so severe that doctors told his wife, Monica, to prepare for the worst.
"Two doctors predicted to her, `Don't look for him to make it tonight,'" Key said he was told later.
But Key survived, just missing becoming one of the rising number of motorcycle deaths in Kentucky since the state's mandatory helmet law was repealed in 1998.
Motorcycle deaths increased by 58 percent in the two years after the helmet law was scrapped, and use of helmets quickly dropped, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The study focused on Kentucky and Louisiana, which repealed its helmet law in 1999. In that state, motorcycle deaths soared by 111 percent in the two years after repeal, the study said.
"The findings aren't any surprise," said traffic agency spokesman Rae Tyson. "It is pretty consistent with what we see whenever a state repeals its helmet law."
Helmet law opponents, however, disputed the findings.
"What they have failed to take into account is the increased number of riders in the state," said Jay Huber of Union, Ky., president of the Kentucky Motorcycle Association.
Huber also said deaths on motorcycles can't be attributed to whether a rider used a helmet. He said his examination of the statistics showed that half of those killed on motorcycles wore helmets.
The federal study, however, said the rate of fatalities per motorcycle registration in Kentucky increased 37 percent, faster than the increase in the number of registrations, which was 20 percent. The national fatality rate, based on the number of riders killed per 10,000 registered motorcycles, was 6.3 in 2000, compared with 8.2 in Kentucky.
The study did not include 2001 or 2002, but figures obtained from the traffic safety administration show that Kentucky's motorcycle fatality rate increased to 12.77 in 2001.
INDIANA, WHICH repealed its mandatory helmet law in 1977, had a 2001 fatality rate of 5.89.
As of 2000, 44,003 motorcycles were registered in Kentucky, according to administration data, up from 39,901 in 1998 and 36,603 in 1996. Indiana had 118,000 registered motorcycles in 2000, up from 97,000 in 1996.
"More people are getting involved in motorcycling," Tyson said. "But even taking that into account, we can't help but believe there is some correlation between a state repealing its helmet laws and the increase in fatalities."
The federal study said that crash statistics showed motorcycle accidents involving deaths and injuries went up after the helmet law was repealed. For example, in 1997, the year before the repeal, there were 24 motorcycle fatalities and 695 injuries. In 1999, the year after the repeal, there were 40 motorcycle deaths and 934 injuries.
Helmet use in Kentucky changed dramatically after the repeal, the study said.
Before the change, 96 percent of motorcycle riders used helmets. In 1999, the number dropped to 65 percent.
Kentucky had passed its helmet law in 1968. But in July 1998, Sen. Dan Seum, R-Louisville, sponsored legislation to repeal it for people 21 and older.
WHETHER TO wear a helmet should be left to "adults making decisions on their own," Seum said. He said he hadn't seen the new federal study but added, "most of the time, those things are pretty self-serving."
But Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, expects to prefile legislation for the 2004 General Assembly that would restore Kentucky's helmet law.
The new study, she said, "will be very beneficial in hopefully convincing my colleagues that the lives of Kentuckians can be saved with a very simple mechanism, and that's wearing a helmet."
Kentucky's repeal has been part of a national trend.
In 1975, 47 states and the District of Columbia had helmet laws, which Congress had encouraged by threatening to cut federal highway aid for states that refused to go along. But lawmakers that year ended the threat, and half the states subsequently repealed or amended their helmet laws. Indiana, which had enacted a helmet law in 1967, repealed it in 1977 but in 1985 required helmets for riders under 18.
Congress enacted new laws to encourage helmet use in the early 1990s, but then abandoned the idea again. More states repealed their laws, and now only 19 states and the District of Columbia still have sweeping helmet-use laws.
REPEALING THE helmet law was a huge mistake, Key said.
"I would vote on (reinstating) it ASAP," he said.
His injuries required three weeks in the hospital and six months at a rehabilitation facility, plus six more months of daily visits for additional rehabilitation. Key said he couldn't remember the accident and couldn't remember people. Gradually that improved, but he lost his floor-care business.
"It's been rough, but I'm doing OK," Key said. The 40-year-old Middletown, Ky., resident ended his rehabilitation on Oct. 10, and received his new driver's license last Friday.
But he's done with motorcycles.
"Never again," he said.
When he sold his Harley-Davidson, he told the couple buying it he would not go through with the deal unless they purchased helmets. They left to buy them, then came back to pick up the bike.
Key, whose wife owns an advertising company, is thinking of going to college and becoming a teacher. His insurance covered his bills; he has no idea what the total came to.
He tells friends who still ride motorcycles to wear helmets.
"They listen, but I can tell they are barely listening," Key said.
Phil Capito, a 44-year-old computer analyst in Louisville who rides a Kawasaki KZ1000, said he doesn't support reinstating the helmet law, but uses one himself.
"I BELIEVE IT'S a personal choice," he said. "... I've been riding 37 years. I was basically brought up on a motorcycle. I never rode one without a helmet."
He believes the helmet provides some measure of protection, though he's never had to find out. On the other hand, Capito said he once saw an accident in which the motorcyclist was wearing a helmet and died anyway.
Chris Kern, 27, of Sellersburg, Ind., a detail manager at a body shop, said he rides his Suzuki Katana with his helmet on "about 25 percent of the time."
The helmet may protect him in some crashes, he said, but the government should not make him wear it.
"There's a sense of freedom without the helmet on," Kern said.
Huber of the Kentucky Motorcycle Association said helmets "can have good and bad effects."
They can protect in some crashes, he said, but also can inhibit the motorcyclist's vision, impair hearing, and in warm weather produce heat stress.
"It's a freedom issue as well. Does the government need to be playing nanny to us?" Huber said.
If others have to pay for that freedom, the answer is yes, said Dr. Todd Vitaz, assistant professor of neurologic surgery at University Hospital in Louisville and co-director of the hospital's Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit.
Vitaz was one of the authors of a study released last June that found motorcyclists who didn't wear helmets were more than four times as likely to suffer severe brain injuries as those who used helmets.
BETWEEN 1995 and 2000, motorcyclists without helmets who were treated at University Hospital ran up acute-care charges totaling more than $1.97 million, Vitaz found. The costs did not include physicians' fees, rehabilitation and lost time from work.
"Why should society pay for their freedom" not to wear helmets, Vitaz said. "That's a significant burden."
Marzian agreed.
"If they don't want to wear their motorcycle helmets, don't ask the taxpayers to foot the bill," she said.
-----------
Interesting read.
Pardon if it is a repeat.
-Flash</div id="left">
] ) . Every sunday I hear of someone getitng ran off the road or something to that nature by some a$$ hole. My point is is that helmets save alotta life's and I think people that never wear them are retarded. I never once bitched about it being hot in a helmet even when its like 90+ degrees out I'd rather wear one, I'm under 21 so I gotta wear a helmet regaurdless. Also the woman who fought to get the florida laws changed for no helmets died 2 weeks after the law was changed on a motorcycle from NO HELMET! Guess that tought the dumb bitch. Thats just my $.02
