Helmetless motorcycle riders = organ donors?

[SueMc]

How did he break his jaw with the full face helmet on? Did the helmet break or was it possibly the wrong size?

The helmet functioned exactly as it should, it was just the force and angle of the impact. When he hit the car (almost at a sideways angle), his head went up and to the side and his shoulder went down. He didn't have any road rash, as he didn't slide, he just came to a stop against the car. In addition to the head injuries, the force of the sudden stop ruptured his aorta and resulted in a brachial plexus injury (that's like a partial "unplugging" of the nerves that control the chest, shoulder and arm).

He was several years in recovery and physical therapy.

 

[Hollywood416]

IN all honesty after getting used to wearing my helmet again. I can't stand to be w/o it unless I am just going to the Jiffy and doing less than 30mph. If I have to go any further/faster the wind noise just drives me crazy besides the fact that after about 15 miles with no helmet it makes my ears start to tingle like how your skin feels when it goes to sleep.

 

[Numpty]

let the people do what they want... as long as people are still picking up smoking as a hobby then i think helmet law is way down on the list as far as what would save more people.

I disagree if you die from smoking your body is relatively still in tact but if you crash off your bike into something hard with no helmet on, SPLAT and some poor bugger has to pick up the pieces .

 

[wrightme43]

I know I say this everytime.

If you dont wear a helmet your a freaking idiot.
Helmet laws are stupid too. All you get is a bunch of people wearing salad bowls on top of their heads. Most of them not even DOT approved. You have to fly thru the air like a freaking javalin for the DOT salad bowls to be effective.

Fullface helmets FTW!!!

Dont make ANOTHER stupid law about it though. Educate the riders. This is your face on pavement. This is your face after beeing wacked by a lugnut. This is your face after hitting a curb.

Adults dont have to wear life jackets.

 

[wrightme43]

If the law is so freaking effective like the IITS says 35% less deaths, with just making people wear salad bowls, what would happen if everyone wore fullface?

Here is the real kicker. 50% of single motorcycle fatals are over .08% BAC. Lets outlaw drinking and riding. Oh wait.

A large percentage of deaths are do to cagers turning left into a rider with right of way. Lets outlaw violating right of way. Oh wait.

Laws are used as a tax. The do not prevent the behavior, just punish the behavior by taking money or in a real bad case a few days in jail.

Education, and a culture of peers saying he man, riding with out a helmet is freaking STUPID!!!!!!!! What the hell is wrong with you? No you cant ride with us with out one. That is effective.

 

[a_sick1]

here is some good advice...

wear a $10 helmet if you have a $10 head

unless you are a :squid:

 

[fast blue one]

as a 16 year old :squid: a helmet saved me. After coming off on a diesel spill I went down an embankment. At the end of the tumble I was unable to see through the visor and the paintwork was a mess. Now if I had no helmet on................................................

 

[mdr]

I disagree if you die from smoking your body is relatively still in tact but if you crash off your bike into something hard with no helmet on, SPLAT and some poor bugger has to pick up the pieces .

Well, if you were the organ recipient, would you rather have the biker's organs or the smoker's. I'd pick the biker's. Ever see the inside of a heavy smoker? Not pretty even if they haven't developed cancer (yet). My mother, god-father and father-in-law died of lung cancer so I'm a bit biased on this topic.

 

[Jericho941]

i ride my bicycle with a helmet. i am not underestimating it. i am saying when i see others riding bicycles without helmets i can understand why. i didnt wear one as a kid and now i felt some stigma about wearing one as an adult. but motorcycles is a different ballgame entirely. thats what i meant. i agree with all of your points and the spirit of your post relating to bicycle helmets. as for the rest of it about laws. it has to do with your view on the role of government. either you feel it is there to protect citizens that are unable to protect themselves. or you feel it needs to stay out. i am of the former (to an extent but that extent is beyond helmets. they should be mandatory)

Your argument either is self contradicting or you don't belive that an adult is able to protect himself. The only just helmet law would be one that applied to minors as it is hardly arguable that they have good judgement. What you are arguing is that the government is obligated to "protect" those that don't want to protect themselves. This is patently different.

I'm certain that the various governments of the members here have stated over and over again that it is not their role to protect people on an individual basis. Government can only claim to protect people but obvious high crime rates in places where people have signed away their security to the government show it's consistant inability to protect helpless people.

In addition to social pro-helmet influence being effective, I'm certain that legislation that would allow an insurance company to default on a policy where the operator of the bike was injured while not wearing a helmet, would effecively encourage helmet use. This solution would help keep the policy rates of smart riders down.

The stupid and reckless will always willfully ignore sound wisdom and reap the payment of fool's errands.

 

[adumb]

anybody know the actual total numbers of deaths that are motorcycle riders. helmet, no helmet, car involved or not what is the total number of all them combined? i tired to get a answer but ya just get so much crap when trying to search nowadays

 

[HavBlue]

All you get is a bunch of people wearing salad bowls on top of their heads. Most of them not even DOT approved.

This isn't true at all and if you had lived in a state that had a blanket helmet law you would have observed this. I agree wearing a helmet is the smart thing to do and much like seat belts for cages I think that helmet law should be mandatory as it is anything but a "stupid law." Fact is, People of the State of California v. Melody Robin Woods was a landmark case that took the beanie with a DOT sticker on it to task and it also forced riders to wear a helmet that was approved through DOT testing at a minimum. What always puzzles me is the people that complain about a helmet are the same people that will wear their seat belt in a cage.

 

[wrightme43]

I am one of the people that complain about helmet laws, but always wear seatbelt, and always wear a quality full face helmet.

I wore my seatbelt before there was a law.

So your saying that the all the people I see that already have a stupid little novelty helmet that they bought to make a wife, girlfriend or what not happy will emmediately go out and buy a dot approved helmet?

What I was getting at, is that the beanies are just about worthless. Like I said in the previous post that was not completely quoted. Unless you fly thru the air like a javalin they have no value.

We all know that the majority of impacts are in the lower front of the helmet and sides.
The helmet law promoters say that it will save X number of lives for everyone to be mandated to wear a helmet. Any helmet doesnt matter which helmet. The people that refuse to wear a helmet today are not going to instantly become safety concious riders because someone has a desire to legislate their behavior. I do not like or accept someone forcing thier beliefs on me thru legisaltion. I will fight it every time.

See I think wearing anything less than full face helmet is freaking stupid. I dont think that I have any right what so ever to tell you what kind of helmet or wether you should or should not wear one.

If you (and that means anybody) wants to wear a beany or a 3/4 have at it. Its your head, you know the risks, go for it.

If IF IF IF there were to be a nationally mandated helmet law. Forcing the use of full face helmets, protective riding gear, armored boots, armored gloves, and a neck brace would you support it? Doesnt that sound excessive? It isnt. It makes sense.
It wont happen though. I wouldnt support it either though.

I do not and will not ever support the legislation of personal choices. I dont care wether or not you wear a condom. Its not the goverments business. I dont care if you brush your teeth or not. Its not the governments business. I dont care if throw your toliet paper in the trash or flush it.

People that want to force others into their way of belief are the reason our country exists. We are supposed to be able to make our own decisions and have minimal intrusion from the government. People that want me to act the way they want me too make me very nervous. I will always resist and fight against it.

See the wierd thing is that I am one of the guys that always wears gear. I just dont think the government should force it. Educate it. YES!!! Help to provide peer pressure to wear it? YES!!! Explain why its the freaking greatest idea ever to gear up everytime you ride. Hell yeah. Rock it out. But do not mandate it.

 

[wrightme43]

anybody know the actual total numbers of deaths that are motorcycle riders. helmet, no helmet, car involved or not what is the total number of all them combined? i tired to get a answer but ya just get so much crap when trying to search nowadays

III - Motorcycle Crashes

Home | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) | U.S. Department of Transportation

Motorcycle Safety Foundation

 

[chuckfz6ryder]

I have always worn a full face helmet, and I can't say how accurate this is, but when I saw this, I couldn't imagine ever wearing one of those tiny "helmets"

 

[wrightme43]

Beany helmets protect from less than 10% of the impacts.

 

[HavBlue]

I am one of the people that complain about helmet laws, but always wear seatbelt, and always wear a quality full face helmet.

I wore my seatbelt before there was a law.

So your saying that the all the people I see that already have a stupid little novelty helmet that they bought to make a wife, girlfriend or what not happy will emmediately go out and buy a dot approved helmet?

What I was getting at, is that the beanies are just about worthless. Like I said in the previous post that was not completely quoted. Unless you fly thru the air like a javalin they have no value.

We all know that the majority of impacts are in the lower front of the helmet and sides.
The helmet law promoters say that it will save X number of lives for everyone to be mandated to wear a helmet. Any helmet doesnt matter which helmet. The people that refuse to wear a helmet today are not going to instantly become safety concious riders because someone has a desire to legislate their behavior. I do not like or accept someone forcing thier beliefs on me thru legisaltion. I will fight it every time.

See I think wearing anything less than full face helmet is freaking stupid. I dont think that I have any right what so ever to tell you what kind of helmet or wether you should or should not wear one.

If you (and that means anybody) wants to wear a beany or a 3/4 have at it. Its your head, you know the risks, go for it.

If IF IF IF there were to be a nationally mandated helmet law. Forcing the use of full face helmets, protective riding gear, armored boots, armored gloves, and a neck brace would you support it? Doesnt that sound excessive? It isnt. It makes sense.
It wont happen though. I wouldnt support it either though.

I do not and will not ever support the legislation of personal choices. I dont care wether or not you wear a condom. Its not the goverments business. I dont care if you brush your teeth or not. Its not the governments business. I dont care if throw your toliet paper in the trash or flush it.

People that want to force others into their way of belief are the reason our country exists. We are supposed to be able to make our own decisions and have minimal intrusion from the government. People that want me to act the way they want me too make me very nervous. I will always resist and fight against it.

See the wierd thing is that I am one of the guys that always wears gear. I just dont think the government should force it. Educate it. YES!!! Help to provide peer pressure to wear it? YES!!! Explain why its the freaking greatest idea ever to gear up everytime you ride. Hell yeah. Rock it out. But do not mandate it.

You can fight things all you want and you can be fined all you want just keep paying as there will likely be some institution or government agency that could use the bucks. Education is so big the one state that does offer awareness in their drivers ed classes, Massachusetts, has seen volumes of benefits from it. Interestingly there numbers haven't dropped because of the education. As for all the people you see with beanies on I'd like to know where. With Kentucky being a limited helmet use state they either have none or in most cases that I have seen the helmets that are used are DOT. This doesn't mean there aren't people here with a beanie on there head but generally speaking it has been no helmet or DOT because the rider who wears the beanie is often the protester and there is nothing to protest here so why even bother wearing it. In Tennessee you will see a number of novelty helmet users but Tennessee doesn't really enforce the law either. Now that to me is the dumb part, if you are going to have a law, why not take the time to enforce it? Enforcement of any law is key to it's effectiveness which is why seatbelts have now become an issue with the "click it or ticket" campaign. Seatbelt use didn't used to be a primary offense and now they are crack down but what happened, why did they wait 38 years to actually enforce their use?

The thing I used to love were the people who wore the novelty helmets with stickers on them that read "worn under protest." If they were protesting why wear the helmet at all? Now, not wearing that helmet would be a protest and you can protest your way all the way to the bench, which won't change anything other than the amount of money taken in by the court during that day. Why not protest speed limits? Nobody follows them. Hows about enforcing the laws as opposed to eating more donuts, now there's a novel idea......

 

[HavBlue]

Folks, if you took the time to read the NHTSB safety statistics on motorcycles before you actually went out and bought a bike you would be thinking this sport is so dangerous I have got to be out of my mind for even thinking about it. Fact is, if you looked at the raw data you would find the riders in many of the fatality crashes were either drunk, helmetless, unlicensed, unskilled or without some form of gear. Take your pick because one of these or a combination of them attributed to most of the deaths. So, if you launch this crowd from the statistics riding a motorcycle isn't so bad after all. The other thing that has often bothered me is the rider that sees the hazard, knows it's there and yet goes right ahead and crashes only to blame the cager or whatever it was that they failed to avoid. Yeah, they saw it, they had the time to avoid it and yet they somehow decided to push the issue and crashed only to blame the other driver or rider. When do we raise our hands and say "I screwed up"?

Riding, unlike driving, requires a certain amount of skill and common sense, if there is any, doesn't go near as far as it does with 4 wheels under you. An example of this is steering. Many untrained riders try to steer a motorcycle as you would a bicycle by leaning and while this does work to some extent, you will never avoid anything at speed by leaning, you must countersteer or you are toast. Another issue is focus and situational awareness. The reason many newbs get into trouble is because they may be focused but they failed to understand what they were seeing and they didn't react to that which was right in front of them regardless of it being the car turning, a tire snake, a deer on approach to the highway, somebody that waved them ahead only to make some bonehead move and that list just gets bigger and bigger. The point is it could all have been avoided in most cases had they reacted to the read.

It's a common assumption by those who don't ride that anybody who does wears a helmet. When that person that doesn't ride finds out the rider doesn't wear a helmet they often ask "are you nuts"? By the same token riders that do not wear a helmet do know there are risks and apparently they are quite willing to accept those risks. Those same people may go their entire riding career without needing that helmet because they ride safe and have never crashed hence the reason they never needed it. This same analogy works for gear too as the only time you may ever need it is if you crash so either wear it or don't crash. I do wear a DOT helmet and at times I do wear gear but the one thing I do not do is take avoidable risks because those avoidable risks are the ones that will get you hurt or worse yet killed but either way they seem to be associated with crashing. So, we can talk gear and we can talk safety all day long but we must first realize that safety is a way of life and not merely a word to be thrown across the table after the fact.

 

[Comet]

Why? Are you suggesting the fact they may smoke will have an effect on how the pilot may fly or how the doctor may diagnose your physical problems?

Why would I trust my health or life with someone that doesnt care anything about their own? Very poor judgement and decision making!

 

[Se7enLC]

When I bought my gear, I opted to spend around $400 on a jacket that had armour and kevlar mesh panels rather than to just get a nice cheap solid leather or textile jacket. For comfort alone, it's hard to justify - but when the temperature reaches 90, it gets harder and harder to resist the urge to ride without full protection - having that mesh keeps me comfortable enough to keep the jacket on. Mesh is less protection than solid leather, but if I had a solid leather jacket, it would end up bungeed to the pillion on hot days.

Growing up I would bicycle and ski without a helmet. Helmets just weren't cool. The only people you saw on the ski slopes wearing helmets were the little kids taking lessons. Times have changed now, and you see a lot more helmets on the ski slopes and on bike trails. I always wear a helmet now.

It only takes a quick youtube search for motorcycle crashes to see which riders get up after horrific accidents and which ones don't. The ones with the gear walk away with minor or no injuries in a lot of cases. And also - black leather jackets will always be cool. :rockon: Sportin' the Mad Max look.

 

[stealthman_1]

Why would I trust my health or life with someone that doesnt care anything about their own? Very poor judgement and decision making!

That's a pretty big leap.

He or she just might be the most skilled physician around. Their judgement may be sound, their priorities for their life may be different than yours.

Disqualifing the best in any occupation because of some a single trait or making a harsh generalization about that trait is not wise.

Babe Ruth ate a lot of hot dogs and drank a lot of beer, I'd still take him in the clean up spot over a mediocre vegitarian any day of the week.