No Helmet protester is dead on his head

I hate being governed by idiots who usualy get it wrong but I for one don't care about helmet laws, I use one any way after seeing a guy get hit by a car on my right & watched as he slid on his back head first into a concrete curb. No helmet & it wasn't preety.
I also know of at least one person who would be dead if I hadn't insisted he use one. He was a passenger & the guy in front died.
 
Kinda sad, and morbidly ironic.

I've always thought that those who choose to ride without head gear (no helmet law here) are just asking for it... just for the sake of being recognized as they cruise around town.

Friday night was a real beauty, as the sun was descending behind the mountains I headed home, from sea level to about 3200 ft., in 20 miles or so. Great night for a ride!

The next morning at the house it was misty. 5 minutes after leaving, I rode into a big downpour that lasted all the way into town... a very wet 1/2 hour.

But as I was up on the mountain, in that deluge, going 60 with limited visibility and traction, a group of V-twins headed uphill offers a salute. I barely saw them until they were 50 feet away! No headlights, and no helmets... rugged individualism or soaked stupidity?
 
Did he have a wife? kids? debts?

The issue, IMO, is one of who bears the cost - the motorcyclist or society.

Just like a polluter who dumps the costs of his pollution down river instead of paying to dispose/clean it up properly, a helmetless rider without medical/disability insurance is dumping his liability onto society because society, right or wrong, has decided to bear that cost in the first place.

It's about bad actors who are able to shift their negative externalities onto others because those others have agreed, in advance, to bear them. It's enablement.

That said, I am a heretic and a hypocrite; society should NOT assume the liability for the risks that motorcyclists and hang gliders and rock climbers and parachuters and base jumpers and other xtreme sports folk choose to take on. We all should post bonds or carry health and disability insurance that specifically covers injury and disability arising from our dangerous hobbies. I admit that I have not always been so insured and may now be underinsured.

Entire industries free load on society's assumption of liability for risky sports/hobbies. As for risky occupations, society has forced assumption of liability with mandatory workplace health and disability insurance requirements.
 
the way i see it this is america- a place supposedly about personal freedom. He made his choice, and he died. Oh well

We lose more and more freedom everyday. Personally I wouldn't ride without one, but I'd still rather have the option to choose.
 
Ummm... with all due respect, sir.... the personal freedom is stuff they teach school kids so they don't have a problem with marching off to wars. nothing about motorcycle helmets, or what preventable head injuries cost us taxpayers.
 
cost is extremely minimal to us, the public. even if say 100 per day were in an accident (36500/yr) 50% insured/50% not, it's still absolutely nothing when you have 10,000/day illegals entering this country getting free healthcare for life. :evil: The doctors office I volunteer at will bill insurance companies 4x the amount they charge cash patients. This is a pretty standard practice. Every day a different drug rep comes and buys the whole office lunch (30 people). Patients end up paying through their prescription charge.

When everything in this country is designed to scam you out of as much money as possible including government and corporation corruption, the small percentage of helmetless accidents where the patient doesn't die and doesn't have insurance is near the bottom of the totem pole.

How far do u take it? How many rights do you take away before everyone is safe? Charge people a 100% tax on their fast food because they will probably have a heart attack in the future? etc... Do you get rid of playgrounds because a kid might fall off a swing or should kids wear helmets in playgrounds too?

Say he lived from his avoidable accident and in the future had cancer, a heart attack, or a stroke. What's the difference? The samll amount he did or didn't pay for insurance premiums would not cover the costs of any of those procedures. Somebody is still going to pay somewhere. I would rather pay for an accident than waste, fraud, price gouging, and illegals.

Yes, I think people should make their decisions being aware of the possible outcomes, but enough with the hand holding and being told how, when, and where you're going to do everything. Ok, end of rant. I wouldn't have even posted because this is not the place for these issues, but the story in the original post does have to deal with personal freedom, personal choices, and politics. No reply necessary :lol:
 
Point made, taken to heart. I truely hope you have allways & will forever refuse those lunches paid for by the drug reps. And will have the intestenal fortitude to tell them why. That is an expression of American freedom living for the greater good not by goverment bull but by human sanity.
 
I kinda like my head and my face even if it is an ugly mug!! I had a friend of mine in a really bad bike wreck about two years ago and he lost his arm and a let, was in the ICU for about 6 months and they were calling his chances minute to minute. Thankfully he pulled through and here today! If he had not been wearing a helmet he would certainly be DEAD!! Does not bother me a bit to put on a melon case and cruise down the road, I wear a full face modular so if I need the wind in my face I can flip the front up but I do not really enjoy eating bugs!

Helmets do save lives!!
 
I've done the head injury thing (not motorcycling) and it isn't any fun. I don't want to go through it again. I have also had the opportunity to slide down the road on my chest with a bike tangled between my legs. The only reason I have a face left at all is because the asphalt ground off my visor instead of my face. It looked like I had held it on a big belt sander.

Some laws make more sense than others and regardless of the debate about personal freedoms, I choose to wear a helmet in a state with no helmet law for the same reason I wear my seatbelt, which is required by law. Kinda ironic.

DonOR...nice avatar!
 
Call me a libertarian, but the reason any of these things you can name "cost us taxpayers" is because our elected officials have manipulated the system and passed laws that have no basis in the constitution, MOST of which spend tax revenues that are not only unconstitutionally confiscated, but have no business being under the purview of those same officials.

I say if someone wants to kill themselves by not wearing a helmet, go right ahead.
 
hobot,
interesting that it was reported on an NZ news site.
We have a taxpayer funded "no fault" medical system, so no personal medical insurance required for emergency type care, which means compulsory helmet law has been in for many years. It has also resulted in the annual vehicle license fee for motorcycles, which includes a medical cover component, being twice that for a car.
 
grandpaul said:
Call me a libertarian, but the reason any of these things you can name "cost us taxpayers" is because our elected officials have manipulated the system and passed laws that have no basis in the constitution, MOST of which spend tax revenues that are not only unconstitutionally confiscated, but have no business being under the purview of those same officials.

I say if someone wants to kill themselves by not wearing a helmet, go right ahead.
Click to expand...

You can lay that label on me too! IMO, if you don't wear a helmet, then it'll be no great loss, since you're brain dead already.
 
I'm not sure about the cost to society thing. When the British army introduced their steel shrapnel helmet in the trenches of the First World war, they reported a substantial increase in the numbers requiring hospitalisation for head injuries. This is because so many more survived to require treatment.

It's a sad fact that it's generally cheaper to kill someone than to leave them disabled and requiring treatment. Could it be that helmet wearers are the selfish ones as they expect society to pay for lifelong treatment costs instead of just dying quickly and quietly ? :twisted:

I always wear a helmet but I resent being compelled to and I do sometimes pull on an illegal 'pudding basin' for riding the old single, just to capture the period experience. It seems a bit odd that I could be fined for such an inoffensive form of behaviour. There are surely greater problems in the world ?
 
It is a problem ONLY because society VOLUNTEERS to pay the liability the helmetless motorcyclist risks.

That is, there is a distinction; the downstream victims of a factory that pollutes the river do NOT volunteer to assume the liability of the factory's pollution.
 
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