Motorcycle Helmets Make A Difference

Story first appeared in USA Today.

As highway deaths overall have fallen with improved safety in cars, motorcyclists have seen just the opposite: a higher death rate.

Motorcyclist fatalities have more than doubled since mid 1990s to about 4,550 last year. And a lengthy report by FairWarning.org, an independent nonprofit public-interest investigative news website, says the rising death toll comes as biker groups have urged Washington to repeal states' motorcycle helmet laws.

Now the groups are going a step further, advocating for a rule that would prevent the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, or NHTSA, from providing any more grants to states to conduct highway stops of motorcyclists to check for safety violations such as wearing helmets that don't meet federal standards.

Also, FairWarning.org says the groups, backed by major motorcycle manufacturers, are:

Seeking to preserve what essentially is a gag rule that since 1998 has prevented NHTSA from advocating safety measures at the state and local levels, including promoting life-saving motorcycle helmet laws.

Trying to derail a measure lawmakers envisioned to reinstate financial penalties for states lacking helmet laws.

By doing so, the groups can help keep pressure on state legislatures to repeal helmet laws, which save lives but impede on what bikers' consider to be their wind-in-the-hair freedom. Says FairWarning.org: "With Michigan's repeal in April of its nearly 50-year-old helmet requirement, only 19 states have helmet laws covering all riders, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In the late 1970s, by contrast, 47 states had such requirements."

NHTSA estimates that motorcycle helmets saved 1,483 lives in 2009, and that another 732 deaths could have been avoided if all riders had worn them, the site says.

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Another Motorcycle Study Shows A Helmet Is Healthier

from Pittsburgh Tribune

A leading trauma center in Pittsburgh says greater numbers of motorcyclists with more serious facial and head injuries are seeking emergency medical treatment since Pennsylvania repealed its helmet law.

The volume of patients brought to Allegheny General Hospital for treatment of facial injuries after motorcycle crashes nearly doubled in the past five years, doctors there say.

An increasing number of cyclists require care and sometimes lengthy hospital stays for facial trauma, including bone fractures. AGH reports the number of riders without helmets brought in for motorcycle-related facial injuries was 122 from September 2003 to August 2008, up from 10 from 1998 to September 2003.

"Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is just risky behavior," said Dr. Joseph E. Cillo, an AGH oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

Pennsylvania repealed its universal motorcycle helmet law in 2003. Only motorcyclists under 21 and riders with less than two years of experience who have not taken a safety course are required to wear helmets.

Cillo and three other AGH physicians authored a review detailing the spike and presented it last month during the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons' annual meeting in Toronto.

Mick Morrow, president of the Pittsburgh-based War Dogs Motorcycle Club, said his group supports riders' rights to choose whether to wear motorcycle helmets. He doesn't think helmets are always effective in preventing injuries. A helmet's weight can add pressure to the neck if the head is hit a certain way, he said, and helmets can restrict some riders' vision and limit their ability to turn their heads - especially full-face motorcycle helmets.

"The rider is unable to see potential problems as quickly as they might without the helmet," Morrow said. "A split-second can make the difference between an accident and avoiding an accident."

The Pennsylvania chapters of the Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education, or ABATE, helped persuade lawmakers to change the restriction. David Tuschel, spokesman for ABATE's Pittsburgh chapter, said riders should be free to decide whether to go helmetless, but he conceded safety instruction can be improved.

"More emphasis needs to be more on avoiding crashes than on injuries and on who's wearing what," Tuschel said.

Last year, 239 motorcyclists in Pennsylvania were killed in crashes, up from 158 in 2004, the first full year of the repeal, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Of those who died last year, 113 were wearing helmets, compared with 117 who were not.

In 2003, 153 people died in motorcycle accidents. Of them, 121 wore helmets and 29 did not. Authorities were unsure if the others had head gear. Hospital officials say helmetless riders usually require medical helicopter flights from crash scenes because their injuries are more severe than those riding with helmets.

State officials said they are studying exactly how much treatment for such head injuries has impacted public health costs since 2003.