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 could understand the helmet laws if they made a helmet that didn't bounce like a basketball when they hit the street.
Lost a friend a few years back that way. Lady that hit him was only going about 20mph. All he would have had was a few scratches but when he went off the bike the helmet hit the pavement and bounced like a basketball and he broke his neck.
Guess you're danged if you do and danged if you don't.
No, Virginia is one of the few places that hasn't gone too far overboard with fascist anti-tobacco laws.
Great response..I hate smoking..I have worked in a building that had chain smokers and the like..but I don't think it is the government's place to tell people how to handle a legal substance..my favorite joke is second hand flatulance..lol..
He came down on his helmet and brain chunks spilled across US 50 about a block West of the Iwo Jima Memorial area.
Helmets don't work under such conditions, obviously.
The same day a buddy of mine (Jerry Coffee) was out on Sully Road traveling North and a gal in a telephone truck swerved over into his lane and hit him headon. He lived.
That evening another friend was on his bike heading North up I-95 about Landmark. Gal driving a car in front of him suddenly slammed on her brakes when her hood came loose and smacked into her windshield. He smacked into the rear of her car and came through the broken windshield. By that time, of course, he was in several pieces.
I gave up riding motorcycles the next day.
Correction ~ it always rattles me a bit when I have to relate that experience ~ Jerry is not the guy hit by the Phone truck. Jerry's the guy who ran into the car on I-95.
Or a head that didn't smash in like an over-ripe melon when it hit the ground.
I have no problem with someone not wearing a helmet when they ride, or not wearing a seatbelt when they drive.
But I also think that the insurance companies should be able to have tiered policies. You should have to buy a non-helmet or non-seatbelt policy if that is the way you want to go. If you get into an accident without the helmet, and you haven't paid the high premiums, they should be able to refuse payments.
I don't blame you. I have told my children to take care of their bodies and have a healthy lifestyle. But the older I get, the more I want from life. At 16 I was scared to skydive, but when I reach 60 (10 years hence)I will, God willing, do just that. The older I get, the more risks I feel allowed. I would rather die on my motorcycle than die of old age in a nursing home - if I have a choice. I don't have a deathwish, I have a lifewish - to live it fully.
Share it, please.
The joke, not the flatulence, that is!
"Sounds like I'd be well advised to get a gun to carry around with me in my car lest I encounter any of these red-light runners we're gonna' have, so I can defend myself."
How big of a gun would it take to stop a motor vehicle as it runs a red light before it hits you? And can you really draw that fast?
That's fine, as long as they don't SMOKE!
That why in Texas we allow people to ride without a helmet but they have to carry an extra insurance policy so if something happens the state doesn't end up paying for years of medical care.
actually..with all this bad science about second hand smoke..maybe second hand flatuance should also be outlawed..I mean..I am at work..next thing I know..my co-worker is cutting one..why should I be exposed to that..where is the justice in that?????
But I also think that the insurance companies should be able to have tiered policies."
Me too.
If you carry a cellphone in your car, you should have to have double the liability.
If you put on makeup while driving,triple liability.
If you drive 60 in the fast lane and ignore the cars behind you, and flip off anyone who honks or flashes they're lights,
your insurance company should cancel you, cause you are a moron.
That's when trouble will begin now that the Commonwealth of Virginia has decided it no longer cares if people run redlights in highly congested urban areas.
Assault and battery is not just an insurance claim. It's a provocation to self-defense.
Hah! Good ones....ever see someone read a paper while they drive???
Riding that bike you have a chance of ending your days in an assisted care facility drooling into your lap ~ not all the serious accidents end in death you know.
Just tonight while coming home, a woman reading a sheaf of papers in rush hour L.A. traffic with an eight of a mile open space in front of her and a mess of angry drivers behind her.
stupid.
i was in the hospital for ten days a few years ago. one day a new nurse showed up, and i casually asked her, why are you here?
and she gave me a truthful answer: there's a young man in the neurological area that i worked with for several months, and finally i couldn't take it anymore. motorcycle accident. alive, but probably a vegetable for years....
I don't know about a lot of you others, but I've had fewer injuries in 20 years of riding, than I have had in driving.
So, would I pay higher rates when I drive?
If you are talking about 'risky-lifestyles', are you ready to suggest that smokers pay higher rates? Fat people that eat too much fast food? How about Reservists and National Gaurdsmen? That's become a bit risky lately.
How about homosexuals?
That has got to be at the very top of the risk assessment chart. (IMHO)
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