[ajprice]

Motorcylist dies of head trauma while protesting state helmet laws — Autoblog

"It's like raa aaaa aaaain, on your wedding day..."

[Doofy]

Unlike the song, this is actually ironic.

[Athens]

Priceless

[ghporter]

Sort of made his opponent's point, didn't he... If it weren't that someone died, it would be funny.

[turtle777]

I agree, there should not be a law against being stupid and reckless. Let em be and eat dirt.

-t

[bstone]

This sort of person also doesn't carry medical insurance, thus shifting the burden of his medical care onto society. Reckless and irresponsible, the reason why I support legislation to require medical insurance as being mandatory.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by bstone 

This sort of person also doesn't carry medical insurance, thus shifting the burden of his medical care onto society. Reckless and irresponsible, the reason why I support legislation to require medical insurance as being mandatory.

I don't know if I'd go THAT far, but I'd certainly say that those who are willingly involved in overly reckless behavior should have to wear helmets. Insurance markets could fix that - just refuse to pay if there was no helmet, and require helmet use as part of the original insurance contract.

Another thing: since the public DOES provide EMT service in most places, it's irresponsible to not wear a helmet. Those EMT services for non-helmet-wearing bikers could be used to save lives somewhere else instead.

I always rode with a helmet, anything else is just plain irresponsible.

[bstone]

Not "EMT services", it's called EMS (Emergency Medical Services).

Also, you usually get billed for EMS response. At least on the two ambulance services I worked for you get billed.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by bstone 

Not "EMT services", it's called EMS (Emergency Medical Services).

Also, you usually get billed for EMS response. At least on the two ambulance services I worked for you get billed.

Sure, you get billed, but the infrastructure exists that's ready to pick you up regardless of your ability to pay. I'm just saying that if someone's down because they refused to wear a helmet, someone on the other side of town could bleed out while waiting for the ambulance.

Back to the topic:
It's sad that someone had to die to make such an important point about safety.

[Wiskedjak]

I wonder if anyone riding with him will change their minds about wearing a helmet?

[OldManMac]

I ride a lot (8200 miles last year, in a little over 6 months). Michigan legislators have been working on repealing MI's mandatory helmet law for almost a decade, and it looks like they may get their wish this year. I couldn't even conceive of not wearing a helmet, but I talked to a biker the other day, who said he would only wear his on the highway if the law passes, and not riding around town. Sometimes you just can't fix stupid!

[Laminar]

The motorcycle forums I'm on are all over this. The better forums have locked the thread already as helmet law threads are to motorcycle forums as SUV threads are to Rob.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

The better forums have locked the thread already as helmet law threads are to motorcycle forums as SUV threads are to Rob.

-t

[BLAZE_MkIV]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

I agree, there should not be a law against being stupid and reckless. Let em be and eat dirt.

-t

[subego]

I tend to be against these sort of laws in principle, but jeez-o-pete... just break the law if it bugs you that much. Aren't there better causes to protest over?

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by subego 

I tend to be against these sort of laws in principle, but jeez-o-pete... just break the law if it bugs you that much. Aren't there better causes to protest over?

"They'll never take...our freedoms!"

[ghporter]

Let me put it in very selfish terms: if someone riding in front of me is not wearing a helmet or eye protection, if he takes a rock to the eye and goes down in front of me, he has effectively forced me to either just plain drive over him, or cause a huge accident by trying not to run him over. In either case, his choice has been to put the physical responsibility for his death on someone else.

Frankly, I seldom wear safety equipment like helmets because I expect I'm going to make a mistake. I wear helmets, seat belts, etc because I expect other people to make mistakes that I have to cope with. Here in San Antonio, "defensive driving" is more than just a concept, it's a life defending technique.

[OldManMac]

We can only predicate our actions on so many "ifs."

[Athens]

The whole safety and accountability thing is going a bit far though these days. Example of stupidity after a accident. A segment of Skytrain runs along the ground in Vancouver and has a nice tall 6 foot chain linked fence with barbs on the top. Its effective at keeping any one from accidentally walking into the track to get electrocuted or crushed by a train. A few weeks ago some one climbed over the fence and jumped in front of a train accidentally on purpose (Suicide). This should have been the end of it but nope. Different investigations from different agencies are now wasting what could be a few million dollars investigating how to make it safer to prevent this from occurring again. WHY!!!! No matter what is done if some one is intent on death they will find a way. Nothing failed so why waste the money on trying to improve the safety of something already safe.

I personally think Helmets make sense, wonder how much money gets wasted with each helmet-less death in investigating the cause of death and more importantly how to prevent and solve future ones.

[Salty]

The sky train example, my guess is that they actually want to prevent clean up, cause it's expensive. Not to mention if people know that there's a good way to both end their lives and get attention at the same time ... there's a good portion of suicidal people who'd jump on that chance. I don't get why they wouldn't just make it a chain link box though. Though even then, bolt cutters would work.

I'll be honest, reliable ways to instantly kill yourself aren't as readily available as you might think. (Unless you get a gun, which is difficult in Canada.)

[subego]

Is this fence along every mile of track in the system?