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What happens when helmet laws are revoked?
Since 1967 when wearing motorbike helmets first became mandatory in the US, riders have lobbied with remarkable success to have the State laws watered down. Today only 20 American states still maintain the laws in full while most others only require riders who are under 21 to wear headgear. They let older motorcyclists ride bareheaded - provided they have $US10,000-worth of medical insurance.
The lobbyists have hailed the dilution as a victory for freedom of choice. But the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been monitoring the repercussions in extra deaths and injuries - and the results have been horrendous.
The agency has centred its study on Florida, which diluted its laws in 2000. NHTA has found that in the three years immediately following the change, the number of head injuries in the State's motorbike crashes increased by 82%, medical costs more than doubled and fatalities among motorbike riders climbed 81%.
Part of the increases could be explained by a rise in the number of people registering to ride motorbikes. But NHTA believes that the diluted laws not only encouraged a more relaxed attitude to wearing helmets but also encouraged more people to buy motorbikes because they knew they did not have to wear helmets.
NHTA is telling the 20 States that still have their laws intact that any dilution will:
- Cause helmet use to decline markedly from virtually full-time compliance during daytime to about 50%;
- Cause a decline in helmet use among the under-21s - because the diluted laws are difficult to enforce;
- Cause motorcycle registrations to increase which in turn will contribute to an increase in motorcycle crashes; and
- Cause fatalities to increase by between 50% and 100%.
But the conclusions have not convinced the lobbyists. One local newspaper, the Daily Press & Argus, quotes Tom Lindsay, a spokesman for the American Motorcyclist Association saying the NHTSA research failed to show what was causing the crashes.
"We're looking forward to real research that surveys many factors of motorcycle crashes and comes up with ways that we can reduce this number," he said.
