The tailor-cut suits and clean-shaven profiles favored by many lobbyists were replaced by leather jackets and scraggly beards in the halls of the Capitol this week.
More than 100 bikers piled into government headquarters to lobby for the no-helmet law (LB 253) that tops their legislative agenda.
After several failed attempts, some supporters of a law that would allow people to ride without helmets say this is the year that “freedom” will prevail. The state director of American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, Larry Schutt, said the bill introduced this year by Sen. Kent Rogert of Tekamah is particularly well written. Plus, there are 22 new state senators who will bring fresh eyes to the issue.
The bill would let everybody 21 years and older go helmet-free, while drivers ages 16 through 20 would have to wear helmets and take safety courses. The bill also proposes that those who don’t wear eye protection be fined a minimum of $75.
“It’s just the freedom of it,” Dennis Frey, sporting a two-foot long beard and leathers, said about the appeal of riding without a helmet.
“Especially in the summertime when it’s 105 degrees and you’re wearing a black helmet. It’s kind of uncomfortable.”
Only four states, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire do not have some type of restrictive law on motorcycle riders wearing protective helmets.
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