Posted on 02/04/2005 8:21:40 PM PST by FoxInSocks
RICHMOND, Va. - It's been a tough day for highway safety advocates at the Virginia General Assembly.
The House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee endorsed legislation allowing motorcyclists 21 and older to ride without a helmet. The vote was 12-to-7.
The panel also rejected a series of bills to continue the use of photo monitoring systems at dangerous intersections in six northern Virginia localities and Virginia Beach. Those pilot programs allow police to use cameras to catch drivers who run red lights.
The programs are scheduled to expire July 1.
Another bill rejected by the committee would have expanded photo-red statewide.
The motorcycle helmet bill will be up for a vote on the House floor early next week. Similar bills have failed on close votes on the House floor three years in a row.
I have them on my K12RS. I love them.
The Harley versions are prone to failure. I was advised to hold off until they get it right. I've been told the bars are hard to hang on to when the heat is stuck to FULL ON.
I wonder if the Beemer versions would fit?
As a former ABATE rep (American Bikers Aiming Toward Education, for 16 years), I'd like to say you are wrong. We are the ones who have our own personal safety in mind. We are the experts, not non-riders.
In our state, we have had rider education for nearly 20 years, and it has been free for most of those. We have advocated education over legislation, driver awareness programs, and even voluntary helmet use, but we have also worked hard to keep legislation which requires helmet use off of the books for adults. Note that riders under 18 must still wear a helmet in our state.
We do not argue that inexperience is not a killer, which is why we have advocated rider ed for so long. No matter what you wear, you can get killed by not operating your vehicle correctly.
As for anti helmet propaganda, no, I have not seen it. I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence regarding situations in which helmets have or could have caused damage exceeding that which would have been caused (allowed?) by the absence of a helmet.
I have been over many of the seminal studies which purport to substantiate that helmets are some sort of safety panacea, and found them to be seriously mathematically, statistically or logically flawed as a rule.
They do not address the issue of helmet use logically, and base conclusions on conclusions of other, pervious and flawed studies.
If you did a study of children who died as a result of injuries from falling off of couches, and started with the mortality statistics, without allowing for the children who were not injured, you would advocate banning couches.
What we never see included in the studies are the stats on people who were not injured without a helmet, (or with) in an accident, and probably never will.
There is a tendency to pick the bike up and ride it home, or call a friend and load it up which skews non-injury data.
There are almost no studies which state that a helmet ever caused an injury, even though there should be (knowing humans, nature, etc, and with abundant anecdotal information) at least a few instances of helmet-induced injury, even if these are considered "freak" occurances.
All we have ever advocated is education, and the freedom to choose whether we, individually, wish to employ safety devices and when to do so.
You can wrap your entire body in Kevlar and foam peanuts but if you hit a car at 60 miles and hour while on a motorcycle you will most likely die, if you don't you will be hooked up to a life support machine the rest of your life.
"I'm for both redlight cameras and speedcameras."
And their magical ability to catch dope dealers, right?
Would you call the freedom to choose whether or not to wear a helmet or a seat belt an "essential" liberty? I wouldn't...
Would you call the freedom to drive a vehicle an "essential" liberty? I would...
When Ben Franklin lived, they didn't have motorcycles, or cars. Times have changed.
Indeed they have, -- and by about 1950 or so, we had plenty of reasonable regulations on how to deal with motor vehicles on public highways. Since then we've gone berserk with over-regulating every aspect of the issue, much to the detriment of our liberty, with little effect on our safety. Ben was right.
If you take Franklin's words literally, then people who are willing to go through screening at the airport in order to board a commercial airplane don't deserve liberty or safety. But I think it's worth it to have to empty your pockets and take off your shoes if it will help prevent another 9/11.
Dream on that the silly airport games are making it 'safe' to fly. -- Or that seatbelt/helmet laws make it safer to drive. -- You cannot live a free life in safety.
AFAIK, the heated grips on the BMWs are a factory only option. Try calling up your local BMW shop and ask one of the techs there. They might be able to give you some pointers.
This is a very simple argument as far as I am concerned. Helmet use is mandatory in motorcycle racing. Guys involved with racing take multiple falls on a yearly basis so they are a perfect test sample.
If helmets cause the types of injury (neck hyperextension) that you are suggesting, it would have shown up in racing accents. I know of no racers who have suffered this type of injury. Do you?
I share yer fever, beaver!
Cars simply don't see motorcycles like they do cars.
My first crash was on my H2 and a lady looked right at me and pulled out....I hit her fenderwell and went over her hood and somersaulted and landed on my Shoei....just scrapped up mostly.
I did have self induced wrecks.....imitating Kenny Roberts....and usuallly sliding out in curves or panicking out and high siding...a much worse event. I always preferred cold asphalt for skin skiing.
You are right...good shoes, gloves and all that helps...no doubt.
I see women on the back with bikini tops on and Daisey Dukes and tennis shoes and I say a pray for them. I saw a young girl ripped in half in Jamaica once like that after her boyfriend's bike hit a fuel truck...awful.
When I rode. I rode rockets...hard. I would guess cruising is inherently safer is it not?
I told my wife yesterday I should buy a Ducati or a BMW just for tooling....she looked at me like I was eating a booger and it dawned on me that my reflexes are shot.
Sometimes a great notion...lol....that idea had a rather short shelf life.
Yeah spelling. I have three degrees and I still trip on the spelling of the simplest words. Drives me nuts.
Keep the focus on maintaining control of the vehicle and driving with respect. Drop forcing your ideas of risk reduction, such as helmets. Also, if the accident is your fault. It's YOUR FAULT! You have no right to tell other people to take measure to reduce your liability, because of your own failures.
Yet you would have promoted requiring strapping folks on their horses and having them wear helmets, for safety of course, because folks fell off their horses then. They in turn would have told you that it was a matter of essential Liberty, tarred and feathered your butt and sent you packin' out on a rail.
Still ice patches, lots of mud today and salt out here. Thanks for the links.
Though glass, usually from a cushioned chair.
I think you missed something in school didn't you?
BTW, when you aren't wearing your seatbelt and come swerving into my lane, barely missing me, and then flipping over, I'll pass right on by, eh!
You missed the connection. I'd suggest your neighborhood is entirely too monoethnic to give you any understanding of the issue.
BTW, a lot of biker/formerbikers on this thread assume that folks who believe in playing it safe on the public roads don't know anything about riding motorcycles.
Actually, a lot of us have more experience than anyone ought to have, and a lot of it the bad kind. I even was launched through the window of a 1949 Studebaker when it hit an abutment in a shopping center parking lot.
No, any motorcyclist riding on I-95 in Fairfax County should bear 100% of the risk. If they wish to play, go to a different area.
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