MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS #5 IN A SERIES OF 5 -- WEARING A HELMET CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE AND PREVENT SERIOUS INJURY, SUCH AS BRAIN DAMAGE, OR EVEN DEATH
From:New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn injury lawyer)
THE TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LAWS REQUIRING HELMETED MOTORCYCLE RIDERS.
9. Q: How do the Court system handle legal challenges to helmet laws.
A: This question only makes sense if the reader is aware that there is a vocal minority who see the right to NOT wear a helmet as a freedom. These organizations fight helmet laws on any ground they can. For example, they argue that requiring helmets, without listing approved helmets, is impermissibly vague. So throw out the law, they argue.
However, Courts have repeatedly upheld motorcycle helmet use laws under the US Constitution. In 1972, a federal court in Massachusetts told a motorcyclist who objected to the law: "The public has an interest in minimizing the resources directly involved. From the moment of injury, society picks the person up off the highway; delivers him to a municipal hospital and municipal doctors; provides him with unemployment compensation if, after recovery, he cannot replace his lost job; and, if the injury causes permanent disability, may assume responsibility for his and his family's subsistence. We do not understand a state of mind that permits plaintiff to think that only he himself is concerned." This decision was affirmed by the US Supreme Court.
10. Q: If I take a special motorcycle safety training course do I still have to wear a helmet?
A: Unfortunately, while rider safety and education courses teach new motorcycle riders basic operating skills and may raise the skill level of an experienced motorcycle rider, they don't seem to reduce the risk of accident or injury. A 1996 review of the effects of motorcycle rider training in the United States, Canada, and Europe on crash risk concluded that there is "no compelling evidence that rider training is associated with reductions in collisions."
