Dont wuwwy, Obambi, you can keep your bike.
Posted on 09/11/2008 9:19:43 PM PDT by DakotaRed
HOLLISTON - If you're young and ride a bicycle through town without a helmet, you may end up walking back home. Police here are looking for scofflaws and will snatch the pedals from your feet if you've been warned numerous times but still forgo headgear.
Holliston police, frustrated in trying to drive home the point that riding without a helmet is dangerous and illegal, are hoping the tactic will finally get the attention of young riders.
"We're not looking to take bikes away from the kids who forget their helmets," School Resource Officer David Gatchell said yesterday. "This isn't something where we're looking to collect a hundred bikes. We don't want to seize bikes, but for the kids who repeatedly ignore the warnings, it will happen."
Riding a bike - or scooter or in-line skates - without a helmet is illegal for anyone younger than 17 in Massachusetts. But Gatchell said he's noticed crowds of youngsters riding in his town without head protection. Bradford Jackson, Holliston school superintendent, said that outside the schools, he's seen an increase in bike riders, given the warm weather.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
While helmets are a good idea, do we desire Police to be granted power to confiscate personal property if you don't follow state mandates?
No. We don’t.
Only an idiot would ride a bike without a helmet.
Word
> Only an idiot would ride a bike without a helmet.
Rubbish.
Nanny State should not be allowed to pass and enforce laws that are “for our own good.”
That includes laws about helmets and seatbelts.
The kids will discover the advantage of riding a stolen bike .
I thought he was all about tire pressure .
Although head trauma is one of the leading causes of liberalism, I still think helmet use should be vountary.
The Founding Fathers would be appalled.
When I was young only an idiot would wear one!
The only ticket I ever got on my bicycle was for 45 in a 25 and reckless driving because I was folding papers at the same time.
I wouldn't wear one today if I got on a bike!
Not that I would never ride one again, mine went in the trash on my 16th birthday when I came home from the DMV with my license and my 40 Ford street racer was siting at the curb waiting.
That was 65 years ago.
Given the context, only a subject would ride WITH one.
Regardless of whether it is legal or not, riding without a helmet is a great way to destroy the higher functions of your brain.
During the summer of 1960, at the age of nine, I regularly rode my bike through every street and alley in West Whittier, Calif. over an area of four square miles. I didn’t wear a helmet—helmets for bike riders were unheard of. Neither I nor anyone I knew ever had an accident.
> Regardless of whether it is legal or not, riding without a helmet is a great way to destroy the higher functions of your brain.
Yes, but so is boxing or the martial arts or The Rugby or The Cricket or even hi-diving. Plain fact is that life is inherently dangerous and the truly fun things in life are the very things that can get us hurt. Indeed, half the fun is in the slim prospect that one *might* get hurt.
I hate riding a bike or a motorbike with a helmet; takes most of the fun out of it. I would never wear pads (ever!) doing martial arts or playing The Rugby: how undignified would that be!
It is truly obscene that laws can be passed protecting us from ourselves.
Helmets do not increase safety. When kids wear helmets, they perform more dangerous stunts. This increases their chances of getting injured, even killed. The helmet provides no protection to the kid’s neck, no protection to the kid’s face, and little to the head.
People are smart, and change their behavior in response to their perception of risk and reward. Change the perception of risk/reward, they change their behavior to compensate. So, if a vehicle operator is unimpressed by the thought of sudden death or a life of paralysis, do you think that he will be affected by theft of a bike, which was bought by Dad anyways?
Ping
I always ride without a helmet, given that I am in complete control of whether or not I can be knocked over, excluding freak accidents. About a year ago, a van rammed into my back wheel, spinning me around and slightly damaging my ankle (I took her license plate with me, though). She didn’t hit me because bicycling is inherently dangerous. I easily could have avoided the accident. I saw her approach a stop sign before I decided to cross the intersection.
I threw caution away. For even in the unlikely event that she would have peeled out from a rolling stop (which is what she actually did), the odds that I would be knocked on my head were slim. How fast can you accelerate a few feet? Anyway, the point is, the only reason I allowed myself to be hit was because I knew that getting hit wouldn’t amount to much. As for freak accidents, I’ll take my chances.
At the same time I'm sick to death of government officials dictating my life to me.
Straighten out your own life, then come tell me how I ought to live mine.
Checkmate.
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