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Should motorcycle helmets be mandatory?
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We'll take a break from our pre-season get ready to ride checklists to discuss one of the most controversial topics not just for Chicagoland bikers, but for all motorcyclists--
Helmet laws.
There's a bill before the Illinois state legislature that would mandate helmets for motorcyclists.
Like all such proposed laws, this one has drawn fire from motorcycle rights groups in Illinois and around the country.
What are the details of said bill? Those details don't matter to many in the motorcycling community, because for those riders any law that mandates wearing a helmet is a bad law.
What does the American Motorcyclist Association say? The Association strongly encourages the voluntary use of a helmet--and ohter protective gear--by all adult riders. The Association does not oppose laws that would require helmets and other protective gear for children--those normally described as "minors," arguing that they may not have the maturity to make good decisions.
For those of us who have raised teenagers--or who remember our teenage years--most would agree with that assessment.
What about for the rest of those who ride?
Do helmets and protective gear reduce the severity of injuries in a motorcycle crash? That's easy--go get a brick. Put on a quality motorcycle helmet. Hit yourself in the head with said brick.
Now take the helmet off and hit yourself in the head with the brick again. No?
But should there be a law?
In this writer's opinion, probably not. Not because helmets and protective gear don't "work," We know they do. Quibbles and rants notwithstanding, there's just too much evidence to back up the common sense experiment above. And not because such a law would take away a Constitutional freedom, again regardless of quibbles or off the wall rants.
Then why? Because the Legislature doesn't ride--and if you don't ride, you don't get it, and if you don't get it, you won't get it right.
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