Helmet Laws Save Lives, Imperil Freedom

The first siren wailed while I was still in the ditch alongside a small twisty backroad in the Texas Hill Country. They’re playing my song, I thought.

Strange. The sirens sounded like they were coming from directly overhead. I didn’t feel dead. I chalked it up to the odd acoustics of the surrounding hills and cliffs.

I wanted to find my glasses and leave before I attracted a crowd. Too late. A sheriff’s deputy pulled up first. Then an ambulance. Maybe two. Next a state trooper. Darn if it didn’t seem as though Delta Force and the National Guard also arrived to check me out.

Quite embarrassing. All I did was drop my motorcycle in a bumpy, off-camber, gravel-strewn curve. But hey, no harm, no foul. I would have been back on my bike and miles away except the fall knocked off my glasses. That must have happened when my head hit the road.

I assured everyone that I was fine. My motorcycle was fine. The day was fine. Everything was fine. And for their concern, they were especially fine. I apologized for what must have been an overzealous good Samaritan with a cellular telephone who caused them all this needless bother.

“No bother,” said an emergency medical technician. “That’s what we’re here for. Are you sure you’re not hurt? Your helmet took quite a beating.”

“No, I’m fine,” I said truthfully.

“And can you imagine,” the deputy sheriff said, “that there’s a bill in the Legislature right now to repeal the helmet law?”

It’s insane, the medical technician concurred.

I kept my mouth shut. This was no time to express my free-will views about the government’s steady encroachment on personal freedoms. Particularly since I was standing there as living proof that helmets save lives and prevent injuries.

But upon closer reflection, I still oppose mandatory helmet use for adult motorcyclists. It’s not that I oppose motorcyclists wearing helmets. Quite the opposite. Modern motorcycle helmets are technological marvels. I strongly support helmet use.

It’s foolhardy to ride a motorcycle without a good helmet. Especially so since most motorcycle accidents are caused by oblivious car and truck drivers. But I also am pro-choice when it comes to making decisions about my body.

The premise often heard to support mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists is the “public burden theory.” That means that the injury to an uninsured person may become a public burden if resulting medical bills are paid with taxes or increased insurance rates.

Riding motorcycles can be dangerous, but it is a myth that America’s hospitals overflow with uninsured motorcyclists who drive up taxes and insurance premiums due to injuries that would have been prevented by a helmet.

Most U.S. injuries occur in the home. Specifically in the bathroom. An extension of the public burden theory would require that all Americans wear helmets when they shower. Fewer public burdens.

Lives would be saved and injuries prevented if the government required mandatory helmet use from birth until death. The government could require specific safety gear for every human activity. Life certainly would be less risky. And there is no question that there would be fewer public burdens.

Actually, the government could lift most public burdens if it mandated the consumption of only healthy foods, required daily exercise (with mandated protective gear) and made a minimum of eight hours sleep compulsory. Governmentapproved latex condoms would become obligatory sex apparel, of course. People would live longer. Risks would drop dramatically.

But freedom is not a constant. It’s risky.

No risks. No choices. No personal freedoms.

Life is worth the risks.

xxxx