[url]http://www.kyw1060.com/news_story_detail.cfm?newsitemid=30502[/url]

For the first time in decades, adult motorcycle riders in Pennsylvania will soon be able to ride without a helmet. Governor Rendell says he'll sign a bill repealing the state's helmet law that was given final legislative approval by the House on Tuesday afternoon.

The repeal bill already passed the Senate. In the House, opponents -- including Delaware County Republican William Adolph -- made one last appeal to stop it:

"According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, helmets reduce the risk of deaths by 29 percent, and are 67 percent effective in protecting brain injuries."

But Governor Rendell's opinion is what matters now, and he puts stock in a different statistic:

"Every cycler has told me, and engineers have told me, that the helmets that they wear only help in terms of preventing brain injuries in accidents where they're going 15 miles an hour or slower."

Rendell says he will sign the bill allowing adults to ride motorcycles without a helmet, saying the public safety costs will be much lower than other legal activities such as cigarette smoking.




How many of you guys ride with out helments?

You have got to have some serious impulse reducing material inorder to save your head from damage in a high-speed crash.  Plus, if you fly off @ 70+ MPG, you are gonna get seriously messed up inspite of protective gear.  While I wont ride w/o a helmet, I know its just pissing in the wind.

This is kinda like the 55 MPH speed limit.  
if Both cars are going 55 in a head on, combined impact speed is still 110 MPH.

We did that in Ohio many years ago. It should be a choice. Bikers spoke up, sheeple driving cars didn't and now have no choice about seat belts.

Good for Pennsylvania!  It's a small step, but I like seeing the nanny state rolled back!

I lived in a state with mandatory helmet laws and my yearly motorcycle insurance premium was <$100, when I moved to Texas, with no helmet laws, my premiums jumped to around $300 or 400 (IIRC).  That really sucked especially since I wore a helmet anyways, whether it was mandated or not.

I wonder if PA's new laws will cause insurance premiums to jump.

-Nick Viejo.

I always wear a helmet unless I don't really feel like it - and on those occasions, I don't.

Personally I think less harm comes from a riding populace that is free to exercise a choice over one that is ruled and subjugated by a bunch of old and gray moralists that live for the opportunity to stick their noses in other people's shit.

I don't ride a bike so this really doesn't affect me anyway, but I think it's a good thing that the law was repealed. That said I think  you're a friggin idiot to ride a motorcycle w/o a helmet. JMHO

While I don't like legislation to dictate what I can and can't do, if you're stupid enough to ride without a helmet, then it's unlikely that an accident will mess up your six fizzling synapses anymore than they already are. [:)]

TT

I dunno, you have to be in a pretty serious accident to not have a seatbelt help you out in some way.  

Helmet?  I don't ride a bike, so I don't care.  

Alex

I have to wonder what's worse:

A. Surviving an accident with an intact brain but having to endure skin grafts, traction, pins in your arms and legs, and general high-level pain for years or...

B. Not wearing a helmet, being in la-la land due to brain trauma, and having to endure all the above listed injuries.

Your rights end when they begin infringing on mine.  

If you ride a M/C & don't wear a helmet I am paying more for my M/C insurance because I wear one.  If the law was written so that any M/C rider in an accident, whether their fault or not, got insurance benefits commensurate with their protective gear, then I would be all for a discretionary helmet law.

It makes no sense for us "stylish" Harley guys to wear all of our cool leathers & no helmet.  WTH are your arms going to be worth if you are brain dead?

If I wear a helmet in these discretionary states then I should pay lower insurance premiums than the person who doesn't.  It's that simple.

Freedom isn't free. If you're willing to let the state run your life to possibly save a few bucks on your insurance, that is a philosophy I do not share. That being said, when I rode I always wore a helmet, even before the law here. Same with seatbelts, because I chose to wear them, not because some faceless beaurocracy empowered themselves to punish for failure to comply.
YMMV

I quit riding about a year ago. I NEVER wore a Helmet, except for when Taking my Riding Exam for the DPS.

I could not stand wearing that BUCKET on my head. OF, course. I would never have had a scooter with a windshield either. Kinda negates the point of getting in the wind.

With that said, I think that a fella is better off wearing a helmet, but it should be a personal choice.

But they ought to amend the law to let the not-quite-dead die on the streets or force them to carry enough insurance to pay a gardener to feed and water the vegatables so my taxes are going to keeping a bunch of rutabegas and carrots on life support for 20 years.

QuidProQuo said:



I agree.  You missed my point though.  If you DON'T wear a helmet you should have to pay more for your insurance rather than pooling the risk, as the insurance companies do, & making me pay more to cover YOUR risk taking.  It's a simple case that your "rights" are infringing on mine & therefore, as I said, your rights end when they start infringing on mine.

If you don't want to wear a helmet, that's cool with me.  I just shouldn't have to pay, either literally or figuratively, for your bad judgement.  Pay for it yourself.

In Fl as I understand it you dont have to have insurance on a bike unless you ride without a helmet. Or, you must have insurance if you ride without one. Not sure which.

Gary Busey had seven fizzling synapses, look what happened to him..........




Although I think he is down to 2 or 3....

I congratulate the funeral industry and motrocycle insureance industry in PA on their coming years of record profits.

Look out PA, Darwin is comming....

A few years ago here in Nebraska, there was a story about a biker who hit a wandering lane semi head on.
They reported, that despite wearing a helmet, the biker didn't make it.
Duh!

Hooray for the repeal....
We needed this to reduce the surplus number of idiots out there. Good to see govt allowing mother nature to do her thing.

Not all impacts are head-on. Sometimes you have to lay your bike down at 75-80mph, sometimes someone else "helps" you do it, like the fella concentrating more on his cheeseburger rather than your right-of-way. Helmets can help you avoid unscheduled asphalt derm-abrasion...but then again, that might be an improvement to some.

I developed a great fondness and admiration for my Bell helmet, from my long ago harescramble racing days.

But hey...at least now with the repeal of the helmet law, we'll at least get some good use out of all those surplus bodybags they made for Iraq.

I almost always wear my Brain basket.

But for some things I wouldn't. - there is a little store a (very long) block up from one place I work. Sometimes I jump on and run up there to grab a few cold sodas. The combined helmit on/off time is longer than the trip one way. (I wear glasses, plus I secure that chin strap if I'm going to put a helmit on.)

[u]It should be a matter of choice![/u] - Helmits make sense 99% of the time, but not 100%.

EDIT: - I ride quads in the dunes at Glamis, CA. I saw someone ticketed for no helimt for riding the quad about 40 ft. They were packing up and the rider moved the quad from where the tent was to the back of the pickup truck. They did not have a ramp and were going to lift it into the bed.

That was stupid! - But then again, it happened in Kalifornia.

Have I lived in California too long?  It was shocking to go to Ariz and see most bikers without helmets and smoking in restaurants.

Well we made in well into the 20th century before that happened.  I'm for choice but I can see the insurance argument.  I'm not sure you could have a high enough premium to cover life long care for head injuries and still expect people to pay it.  They'd probably start faking insurance like the illegals do in CA, buying it just to get the registration and tags.

How so? Look at your policy. What is the medical payment portion? $1000 ?   That's all your MC insurance company is going to pay towards your medical bills.
Do states without helmet laws make insurance companies up their medical payments portion to $100,000 ?????

I don't think he has that many. BTW, he wasn't riding when he fell, he was stopped at an intersection and fell over and whacked his head on a curb. He makes Dennis Hopper seem coherent. [%|]