Buckling up when you drive a car or wearing a helmet when you are on a motorcycle seems like it should be a “given” in 2007. But the reality is that even today, many motorcycle riders still don’t wear helmets, some citing personal liberty and the feel of the road as reasons. Nor do some drivers “click it” when they get into their vehicles.
While some state officials have decided that maybe those people are right — Michigan lawmakers were poised and ready to repeal the state’s 37-year-old mandatory motorcycle helmet law in last year’s legislative session — fortunately Colorado is hoping to curtail accidents and injuries with two traffic safety bills.
The Rocky Mountain State’s House Bill 1117 would create penalties of $25 to $110 for people who fail to wear a motorcycle helmet, of which $10 would go to the Colorado traumatic brain injury trust fund. And Senate Bill 151 would make it an offense for anyone in a vehicle’s front seat not to wear a seat belt, incurring a fine of up to $35.
While those amounts seem somewhat small, they make a much larger point: Helmets and seat belts save lives.
Nationwide, motorcycle deaths continue to rise. In 2004, more than 4,000 people died on motorcycles in the United States — an increase of 8 percent from the previous year, according to the most recent statistics available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 80 percent of motorcycle crashes result in injury or death. Yet according to NHTSA’s June 2006 report on motorcycle helmet use, helmets saved 1,316 motorcyclists’ lives in 2004. The Administration also estimated 670 more people could have been saved had all motorcyclists worn helmets.
Equally compelling is the story told by statistics regarding seat belts. Colorado predicts if it’s seat belt bill becomes law, it could save between 30 and 70 lives per year, and avoid $72.5 million in Medicaid costs during the next 10 years because of reduced accidents and injuries.
Only 20 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring motorcycle helmet use, but the good news is Colorado and other states in the West are on the right track. The use of Department of Transportation-compliant helmets increased by 22 percentage points in the West, to 72 percent in 2006, NHTSA indicated. And belt use climbed from 85 percent to 90 percent between 2005 and 2006 in the region.
There will always be people who write off safety laws as an unnecessary nuisance. Sen. Greg Brohy, R-Wray, argued Colorado’s seat belt bill was nothing more than an excuse for police to needlessly harass citizens. “Adding another potential abuse of stops for basically no reason isn’t something that we need to do,” he was quoted in a Senate News press release as saying.
Yet “a seat belt can’t work if it isn’t on,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters in a statement in November. “Whatever it takes, we all need to do a better job making sure everyone chooses to buckle up.”
Encourage people to put on their helmets, too. They obviously enjoy driving down the road on their “hog.” It’s not just insurers that would hate to see them wind up in heaven.
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