Motorcycle helmets laws? A no-brainer.

March 30, 7:12 AMSeattle Motorcycle ExaminerPhil Herring

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Call me crazy, but you may want to take care of this.

Should motorcycle helmets be required by law, or should the rider decide?

Is helmet use another manifestation of the "nanny state," or sound legislation?  If you have to be hosed off the highway, is that your responsibility or mine?

That's been the topic of a spirited debate on Examiner.com, with the motorcycle examiners from Denver, DC, and Louisville, Ken Bingenheimer, Mark Poesch, and Patty Davis, arguing that riders should decide how much crash protection is enough, not the state.

With all due respect to their articulate and compelling arguments for personal responsibility, I think helmet laws are a fine idea.

While anyone can be injured doing nearly anything, catastrophic brain injury is in a class of its own.  Brain injuries are:

• Easy to incur.  Even at parking lot speeds a fall can lead to a serious injury if your head is unprotected.
• Expensive to rehabilitate.  Far beyond the means of most riders.
• Easily avoided or lessened, in many cases, by wearing a helmet.

Make no mistake, brain injuries are not as simple as a broken arm.

Dawn Turnage, of the Brain Injury Association of Arizona, says helmet use is a no-brainer.  She recently wrote, "...statistics fail to convey the pain, devastation, financial hardships and long rehabilitation associated with a traumatic brain injury."

"For those who survive, brain injury is life-altering. Serious physical impairments are frequently a result, as well as a variety of cognitive, behavioral and emotional complications.  An individual with severe brain injury typically faces five to 10 years of intensive rehabilitation, with medical costs often approaching $2 million."

This is where the personal responsibility argument falls apart.  Although the risk of riding sans helmet may be your choice, the cost of your decision may fall to me through taxes or increased health and property/casualty insurance costs.

If a significant portion of these injuries can be avoided by a simple safety precaution such as wearing a helmet -- and there is ample statistical evidence that they are -- then mandatory use is a reasonable and logical requirement.

I'm not interested in telling anyone how to live, and I too resent the government messing around in my choices.  But when I have to take some of the responsibility for your choices, a little government intervention is not a bad thing.

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