By Reid Collins on 2.20.07 @ 12:06AM
Montana cyclists choose to remain helmetless.
"I make the decision, this is America for God's sakes."
Thus spake a retired fire chief in Montana as motorcyclists
lined up in the state capitol to oppose a legislative proposal to
mandate the use of safety helmets for cyclists in the Treasure
State. Fire chief Ralph Elrod needn't have worried. The proposition
was tabled in committee, 15 to 2, the latest failed attempt to
bring Montana in line with 20 states that have mandatory helmet
laws. Twenty-seven states, Montana among them, do have laws
requiring such head gear for minors under 18. And three states have
no such laws. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
lists them as Colorado, Iowa, and Illinois.
A state senator declared the Montana matter to be "an issue of
freedom," not surprising perhaps for a state that only recently
acceded to installing a speed limit on its highways. Not even an
amendment allowing those with at least a hundred thousand dollars
in medical insurance to ride helmet-free could clear passage, but
it holds a clue to the motivation of those who want to curtail the
fire chief's freedom to decide. The traffic safety folk say
helmetless cycle riding costs money-- and frequently it is public
money. And hospital groups were among those leading the pleading
for a helmet law.
NHTSA estimates helmets saved $1.3 billion in 2002 alone and
that another $853 million would have been saved if all involved in
fatal crashes had been wearing helmets. Figures show fatalities
rising faster than motorcycle registration: 2,116 deaths in 1997,
4,553 in 2005. The NHTSA folk say helmets saved 1,316 cyclists in
2004 and if all wore them, another 671 could have lived. In short,
helmet use, they claim, reduces likely crash fatality by 37
percent.
All the compelling statistics from the government files, and
those adjacent in the nursing association notebooks, fail to take
into account the psychology of "bike" riding. It is not done for
reasons of safety. That tinnitus-inducing roar speaks of something
else; that cervical-snapping acceleration treats of another time.
The appeal is to adventure beyond reach of many, and alien to
most.
topics:
Books, Law, NATO
