Helmets save lives

Sun., Sept. 25, 2011

Gust Abariotes writes that helmets are about “money,” not safety while riding bikes, skateboards, etc. I would gladly pay “money” to bring back my first-born son who was in his late 50s and would not wear a helmet while riding his motorcycle in Maine.

Two years ago this month, an 18-year-old woman pulled out of a race track in Oxford, Maine, in front of him. To keep from hitting her, he went down, incurring a 7-inch skull fracture. After about a month hooked up to life-saving devices with no chance of recovery, our family, his wife, two sons, eight siblings, plus myself, agreed that he would not want to live in a nursing home being kept “alive.”

If my son had been wearing a helmet, things would be different, Mr. Abariotes. Helmets are about safety, not money.

Maxine E. Hinkley

Spokane

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