Essential reading
By JOHN YAUKEY and ROBERT BENINCASA, Gannett News Service
An increasing death rate for motorcyclists has sparked renewed debate over helmet laws. Safety advocates say such laws save lives and money, but bikers who oppose the laws say they represent a threat to personal freedom.
By JOHN YAUKEY, Gannett News Service
As motorcycles have become more nimble and powerful, stuntriding has gained in popularity. "Stunters" acknowledge that what they do is dangerous, but they say their sport is moving off the street and into arenas and other venues where traffic isn't an issue and medical services are close at hand.
By JOHN YAUKEY, Gannett News Service
Motorcyclists who oppose helmet laws say helmets impair vision and hearing and can make riding a motorcycle more dangerous. But studies overwhelmingly show that requiring bikers to wear a helmet reduces medical costs.
By JOHN YAUKEY, Gannett News Service
There's an overwhelming variety of motorcycle helmets out there, but focusing on some essential criteria makes it easier to narrow the field. Above all, don't forget to look for that DOT sticker on the back.
USA TODAY editorials
If you ride a motorcycle, you're 37 times more likely to die in a crash than someone in a passenger car. Motorcycle deaths have more than doubled in the past 10 years, and motorcycle accidents kill more Americans each year than all the nation's much higher-profile plane crashes, ship disasters, pipeline explosions and railway accidents combined.
By Jeff Hennie,vice president of government affairs for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation.
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.
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