Opposing view: Helmet laws don't work
By Jeff Hennie,vice president of government affairs for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation.
Rider education, driver awareness are better ways to prevent crashes.
Government officials will tell you that motorcyclists make up 2 percent of the vehicles on the road and 10 percent of the fatalities, and they would be correct. That sounds like a major problem. But what they don't tell you paints a very different scenario.
Motorcycle registrations have more than doubled since 1997, and new motorcycle sales have quadrupled since then. Surely, when the population is increased one must expect the crash numbers to climb as well. Simple statistics.
The last time motorcycle deaths were as high as they are now was in 1986, when motorcycle registrations were slightly more than 5 million. In 2006, almost 6.5 million motorcycles were registered in this country. That's an additional 1.5 million motorcycles and the same number of fatalities. Maybe the motorcycle fatality rate isn't as out of control as some would like you to believe.
When motorcycle safety is addressed, it almost always revolves around one controversial issue: helmet laws. All but three states have a version of a helmet law on the books. Twenty-seven states allow riders to exercise choice when donning personal protective equipment, and the remaining 20 require all riders to wear a helmet of some sort. If helmet laws worked, there would be a sharp contrast concerning crash data between states that require universal helmet use and those that don't. That isn't the case.
According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration August 2007 publication, two of the three states that had the largest increase in fatalities from 2005 to 2006 have universal helmet laws (Alabama and California). Of the three states with the largest decrease in motorcycle fatalities over that period, two (Illinois and New Hampshire) have no helmet requirement, and the third (Ohio) allows experienced riders to ride without a helmet.
The bottom line is that helmet laws don't prevent accidents. The best case scenario is to avoid the crash in the first place. How? Through proper, affordable rider education and widespread motorist awareness campaigns to educate the general motoring public to be aware of motorcycles.
Motorcycle safety requires a comprehensive approach, or we risk losing even more lives. Simply relying on a helmet law to reduce the number of fatalities has proved to fail time and time again.
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Originally published April 1, 2008
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