So that there are no misunderstandings, here are a few of the things that I believe to be true relative to motorcycle helmets:
• More lives have been saved than lost because of wearing helmets.
• More injuries have been minimized than exaggerated because of wearing helmets.
• More injuries have been totally avoided than caused because of wearing helmets.
• Wearing helmets (as opposed to laws that require you to do so) is NOT a civil rights issue - it is a safety issue, period!
• Motorcyclists that join lobbying efforts (adopting a 'cause') to ban helmet laws tend to smear the image of motorcyclists in general with the public, tend to preach from an extremist's pulpit, and tend never to have had a family member survive unhurt (or un-dead) from a motorcycle accident because of wearing a helmet.
• Whether it is a law or not, you always have the ability to decide to ride without one. The consequences can include having a safe and uneventful ride, getting a ticket, getting a bump on the head, losing your jaw or nose or ear or eye, getting a neck injury, or death. If you ride with a helmet the consequences can range just as wide with the exception that your ODDS of getting a ticket, getting a bump on your head, losing part of your face, getting a neck injury, or dying are diminished. You have that choice, law or not.
• There are valid concerns about helmets such as:
o If you are injured while wearing one it is likely to be cervical in nature - meaning that there is the possibility that helmets tend to shift injuries away from the skull and towards the neck (or that the helmets are doing their jobs which does NOT include protecting the neck.).
o They are not as effective in injury/death protection as they could be (but who would/could wear a deep-sea 'bucket' weighing 40 pounds?)
o Some people believe they are so safe while wearing them that they take larger risks than without - thus inviting trouble.
So I'll bet you know my reaction to the latest newsletter I received from A.I.M. (Aid to Injured Motorcyclists) whose motto appears to be "Know Your Rights" and which featured an article entitled: "FEDERAL HELMET LAW REPEALED".
This is a group of attorneys that claim to be an international voice for all motorcyclists. (Though they use the word 'all', I can personally demonstrate that to be false.) The work they do on individual cases is NOT AT ISSUE HERE! I believe they do professional and often pro-bono work for injured motorcyclists on a regular basis. But when they ADVERTISE that they have won $12 million in a settlement of a defective helmet case, then use that as in some way supporting the argument that there should not be any helmet laws (for example, of non-defective helmets) I am more than suspicious of their objectives. (Let's see, a person is severely injured, in part, because he was wearing a defective helmet, and the attorney gets a $12 million settlement (meaning it did not get resolved by a judge or jury - ie, FAR LESS WORK FOR THE ATTORNEY) and then gets to keep probably $4 million (or more) of that settlement even though he suffered no injury himself - sounds like lots of motivation to get more cases just like it to me.)
Or how about ADVERTISING that they have filed a class action claim on behalf of harassed bikers for ONE-HUNDRED-MILLION-DOLLARS!!!!! Seems some law enforcement officers are alleged to have engaged in discriminatory law enforcement (paying more attention to Harley riders than those on any other brand, among other things). Sounds like just the thing to possibly earn (for themselves) another $33 MILLION. No pain and suffering, this time, for anyone.
Let them win that one and imagine what the non-motorcycling public will think of motorcyclists in general.
Well, this is not about A.I.M., but about helmets.
